In recent years, microbial fuel cell (MFC) has been regarded as a promising technology for dye wastewater treatment. Compared with traditional anaerobic reactors, MFC has better decolorization effect while producing electricity simultaneously. In this paper, a double-chamber MFC with the sponge anode modified by polyaniline and chitosan-NCNTs was employed for simultaneous azo dye decolorization and bioelectricity generation. The influence of dye concentration, co-substrate concentration, and operating temperature on the performance of MFC with the modified anodes were studied. The results showed that a high decolorization efficiency (98.41%) and maximum power density (2816.67 mW m⁻³) of MFC equipped with modified bioanodes were achieved due to the biocompatibility and bioelectrocatalysis of modified material. And the biomass on the modified anode’s surface was increased by 1.47 times. Additionally, microbial community analysis revealed that the modification of polyaniline and chitosan-NCNTs improved the selective enrichment of specific communities and the main microorganism was the electroactive and decolorizing bacteria Enterobacter (62.84%). Therefore, the composite anode is capable of fully utilizing the synergistic role of various materials, leading to superior performance of dye decolorization in MFCs. This work provided a strategy for the research on the recovery of biomass energy and decolorization in wastewater treatment.

Graphical Abstract

近年来，微生物燃料电池（MFC）被认为是用于染料废水处理的有前途的技术。与传统的厌氧反应器相比，MFC在同时发电时具有更好的脱色效果。在本文中，采用海绵阳极经聚苯胺和壳聚糖-NCNT改性的双室MFC同时用于偶氮染料的脱色和生物电的产生。研究了染料浓度，共底物浓度和操作温度对改性阳极MFC性能的影响。结果表明，高脱色效率（98.41％）和最大功率密度（2816.67 mW m ^-3）由于改性材料的生物相容性和生物电催化作用，实现了具有改性生物阳极的MFC）。改性阳极表面的生物量增加了1.47倍。此外，微生物群落分析表明，聚苯胺和壳聚糖-NCNTs的修饰改善了特定群落的选择性富集，主要微生物是电活性和脱色细菌肠杆菌（Enterobacter）（62.84％）。因此，复合阳极能够充分利用各种材料的协同作用，从而导致MFC中染料脱色的卓越性能。这项工作为研究废水中生物质能的回收和脱色提供了一种策略。

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