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Modification of carbon felt anode with graphene/Fe2O3 composite for enhancing the performance of microbial fuel cell

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A Correction to this article was published on 09 December 2019

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Abstract

In this paper, a graphene/Fe2O3 (G/Fe2O3) modified anode was prepared through a simple one-step hydrothermal reduction method to improve the performance of microbial fuel cell (MFC). The power density of MFC with the G/Fe2O3 anode was 334 ± 4 mW/m2, which was 1.72 times and 2.59 times that of MFC with a graphene anode and an unmodified anode, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy and iron reduction rate experiment showed that G/Fe2O3 materials had good biocompatibility. Furthermore, microbial community analysis results indicated that the predominant populations on the anode biofilm belonged to Enterobacteriaceae, and the abundance of Desulfovibrio increased in the presence of the Fe2O3. Thus, the combination of graphene and Fe2O3 provided high electrical conductivity to facilitate extracellular electron transfer (EET) and improved biocompatibility to promote the cable bacteria formation and enhance electron transport efficiency over long distances. Therefore, G/Fe2O3 is an effective anode material for enhancing the performance of MFCs.

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  • 09 December 2019

    It has been brought to our attention that in our article, explanations about cable bacteria are not rigorous. We apologize for these and note the specific reporting issues and errors below, with their corrections.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0901300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 21878150); the Key projects of modern agriculture in Jiangsu Province (Grant No.: BE2018394); Fund from the State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering (ZK201605) and the Jiangsu Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Bio-Manufacture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Fu, Haoqi Wang, Tian-shun Song & Jingjing Xie

  2. College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Fu, Haoqi Wang, Tian-shun Song & Jingjing Xie

  3. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control (AEMPC), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, People’s Republic of China

    Qiong Huang & Tian-shun Song

  4. Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing, 211816, People’s Republic of China

    Jingjing Xie

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  1. Lin Fu
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Correspondence to Tian-shun Song or Jingjing Xie.

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Fu, L., Wang, H., Huang, Q. et al. Modification of carbon felt anode with graphene/Fe2O3 composite for enhancing the performance of microbial fuel cell. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 43, 373–381 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-019-02233-3

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