Utilization and perspective of carbon nanotube/polyaniline composites as anode for improvement of MFC

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has attracted great interest as a green source which utilizes chemical energy produced during microorganisms decomposing organics and inorganics to generate electricity. Electrode plays a crucial role among several factors that influence the properties of MFC, especially the anodic material. Carbon materials/polyaniline (PANI) composites combine the advantages of carbon materials and PANI, which exhibit excellent conductivity and large specific surface area, considered as an explanation of such improvement, and biocompatibility, specifically when using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the carbon material. In this work, we provide a review of the synthesis methods, properties and application in MFC using CNTs/ PANI composites as electrode, and the perspectives are also stated.