Template-free synthesis of a multilayer manganese oxide/graphene oxide nanoflake-modified carbon felt as an anode material for microbial fuel cells

Lizhen Zeng; Lixia Zhang

doi:10.1039/d4ra07323a

Template-free synthesis of a multilayer manganese oxide/graphene oxide nanoflake-modified carbon felt as an anode material for microbial fuel cells

RSC Adv. 2025 Jan 16;15(3):1540-1548. doi: 10.1039/d4ra07323a.

Authors

Lizhen Zeng¹, Lixia Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ Analysis and Testing Center, South China Normal University Guangzhou 510006 China [email protected].
² CAS Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Chengdu 610041 China.

Abstract

A novel multilayer nanoflake structure of manganese oxide/graphene oxide (γ-MnO₂/GO) was fabricated via a simple template-free chemical precipitation method, and the modified carbon felt (CF) electrode with γ-MnO₂/GO composite was used as an anode material for microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The characterization results revealed that the γ-MnO₂/GO composite has a novel multilayer nanoflake structure and offers a large specific surface area for bacterial adhesion. The electrochemical analyses demonstrated that the γ-MnO₂/GO composite exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity and enhanced the electrochemical reaction rate and reduced the electron transfer resistance, consequently facilitating extracellular electron transfer (EET) between the anode and bacteria. The maximum power density of MFC equipped with the γ-MnO₂/GO composite-modified carbon felt anode was 1.13 ± 0.09 W m^-2, which was 119% higher than that of the pure commercial carbon felt anode under the same conditions. Thus, the results demonstrate that the multilayer γ-MnO₂/GO nanoflake composite-modified carbon felt anode is a promising anode material for high-performance MFC applications.