Pyrolyzing pyrite and microalgae for enhanced anode performance in microbial fuel cells

Developing low-cost and high-performance anodes is of great significance for wider applications of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). In this study, microalgae and pyrite were co-pyrolyzed (P/MC) and then coated on carbon felt (CF) with PTFE as a binder. P/MC modification resulted in increased electroactive surface area, superhydrophilicity and higher biocompatibility. Besides, the P/MC-CF anode reduced the charge transfer resistance from 35.1 Ω to 11.4 Ω. The highest output voltage and the maximum power density of the MFC equipped with the P/MC-CF anode were 657 mV and 1266.7 mW/m2, respectively, which were much larger than that of the MFC with the CF anode (530 mV, 556.7 mW/m2). The P/MC-CF anode also displayed higher columbic efficiency (39.41%) than the CF anode (32.37%). This work suggests that pyrolyzing microalgae with pyrite is a promising method to enhance the performance of MFCs.