Anthraquinone-2-sulfonate immobilized to conductive polypyrrole hydrogel as a bioanode to enhance power production in microbial fuel cell.

In this study, anthraquinone-2-sulfonate (AQS), a redox mediator, was covalently bound to conductive polypyrrole hydrogel (CPH) via electrochemical reduction of the in-situ-generated AQS diazonium salts. The porous structure and hydrophilic surface of this CPH/AQS anode enhanced biofilm formation while the AQS bound on the CPH/AQS anode worked as a redox mediator. The CPH/AQS bioanode reduced the charge transfer resistance from 28.3Ω to 4.1Ω while increased the maximum power density from 762±37mW/m to 1919±69mW/m, compared with the bare anode. These results demonstrated that the facile synthesis of the CPH/AQS anode provided an efficient route to enhance the power production of microbial fuel cell (MFC).