Activated microporous-mesoporous carbon derived from chestnut shell as a sustainable anode material for high performance microbial fuel cells

[Display omitted] •Mesoporous-microporous structure created by activation promoted electron transfer.•Activation process decreased N− and O−containing functional groups on the biomass.•Activated chestnut shell anode showed higher power output compared to carbon cloth.•The chestnut shell anode had lower internal resistance compared to other biomass. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are promising biotechnologies tool to harvest electricity by decomposing organic matter in waste water, and the anode material is a critical factor in determining the performance of MFCs. In this study, chestnut shell is proposed as a novel anode material with mesoporous and microporous structure prepared via a simple carbonization procedure followed by an activation process. The chemical activation process successfully modified the macroporous structure, created more mesoporous and microporous structure and decreased the O−content and pyridinic/pyrrolic N groups on the biomass anode, which were beneficial for improving charge transfer efficiency between the anode surface and microbial biofilm. The MFC with activated biomass anode achieved a maximum power density (23.6 W m−3) 2.3 times higher than carbon cloth anode (10.4 W m−3). This study introduces a promising and feasible strategy for the fabrication of high performance anodes for MFCs derived from cost-effective, sustainable natural materials.