Anode materials for soil microbial fuel cells: Recent advances and future perspectives

The employment of soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) has become popular recently due to it's dual properties of energy production and soil pollutants treatments. In SMFCs, the main problem is to attract the exoelectrogens to the anode in solid medium rather than in aqueous medium of MFCs. So, the subsequent research should focus on developing anode materials that can not only promote the aggregation of exoelectrogens, but also cost-effective, and so as to facilitate the removal of pollutants from contaminated soils and the power generation for low energy accessories. Recent studies have reported that the modification of traditional anode materials makes the SMFCs to obtain excellent performance, especially the use of renewable raw materials. This review summarizes the advancements of biochar, metals, graphene (Gr), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and their derivatives as anode materials in SMFCs. Furthermore, the performance improvements of SMFCs by using the novel or possible future anode materials in the removal of pollutants and shifting of bacterial community were described. Finally, the future trends of anode materials for SMFCs were prospected. Novelty statement The short of comprehensive review on the anodic materials limited the research and application of SMFCs. This work not just summarized the current used anodic materials, but also highlighted the possible future anodic materials, which should be helpful for comprehensive understanding and be beneficial to advance future research on SMFCs.