Great attentions have been paid to the new technology of energy exploration and utilization due to the increasingly serious energy crisis and water pollution. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as a novel and efficient bioenergy utilization technology can convert chemical energy contained in organic wastewater into electricity directly. MFCs are able to treat wastewater and generate electricity energy simultaneously. Anode materials play a crucial role in determining MFCs' performance. The carbon materials are widely used as anode of MFCs because of their low price, superiority in conductivity, and good biocompatibility. The recent research progress on carbon anode materials of MFCs is reviewed in the following five aspects: the common carbon materials, three-dimensional porous carbon materials, surface chemical modification, carbon nanomaterials modification, and conductive polymer modification. The influence of three-dimensional porous structure and surface modification on electricity production performance of MFCs is discussed. Finally, the application prospects of carbon anode materials for MFCs are presented.

microbial fuel cells  /  anode materials  /  carbon materials  /  surface modification  /  three-dimensional porous structure