Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology efficiently handles the two issues of pollution removal and energy generation at the same time; however, it is limited in its use due to a few fundamental constraints. The key operational constraints of the MFCs are the high cost of electrodes and membranes. To address these issues, carbonized corncob anodes were prepared, and the effect of chemical treatments such as 20% hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), 1 N NaOH, and 1 N FeCl₃ on the performance of a single chamber MFC was examined. The comparison of single-chamber MFCs with the bare anode (without any chemical treatment) and the chemically treated carbonized corncob anode were performed. The comparison revealed the excellent electro-catalytic activity in MFC with 20% H₂O₂ treated anode, exhibiting 91% decrease in internal resistance along with 89% improvement in the maximum power density (89.7 mW/m²). The H₂O₂-treated anode demonstrated an increase in oxygen molecule containing functional groups which favored the electron transfer between the bacteria and electrodes. Furthermore, MFCs with 20% H₂O₂-treated anode resulted in 18% higher decolorization efficiency of dye wastewater than bare anode. The use of corncob as an anode material made the MFC device construction easier and economical and provided a way forward to study other cheap agro waste materials for use as anode and cathode materials.

微生物燃料电池（MFC）技术有效地同时处理污染去除和能源生产两个问题；但是，由于一些基本限制，它的使用受到限制。MFC 的主要操作限制是电极和膜的高成本。为了解决这些问题，制备了碳化玉米芯阳极，并研究了化学处理（例如 20% 过氧化氢 (H ₂ O ₂ )、1 N NaOH 和 1 N FeCl ₃）对单室 MFC 性能的影响。进行了单室 MFC 与裸阳极（没有任何化学处理）和化学处理的碳化玉米芯阳极的比较。比较表明，在 MFC 中，20% H 具有优异的电催化活性₂ O ₂处理过的阳极，内阻降低了 91%，最大功率密度提高了 89%（89.7 mW/m ²）。H ₂ O ₂处理过的阳极显示出含有有利于细菌和电极之间的电子转移的官能团的氧分子的增加。此外，具有 20% H ₂ O ₂处理阳极的 MFC 使染料废水的脱色效率比裸阳极高 18%。使用玉米芯作为阳极材料使 MFC 装置的建造更容易、更经济，并为研究其他用作阳极和阴极材料的廉价农业废料提供了一种途径。