Entropy‐Engineered HEO/Fe, N‐CNT Bioanode via Flash Joule Heating: Accelerated Electron Harvesting and Directed <i>Geobacter</i> Enrichment for High‐Power Microbial Fuel Cells
Extracellular electron transfer (EET) at the microbe-anode interface remains a critical bottleneck in microbial fuel cells (MFCs). While high-entropy oxides (HEOs) show promise for enhancing anode kinetics, conventional synthesis methods yield poor interfacial integration and fail to elucidate entropy-driven EET mechanisms. Herein, an entropy-engineered bioanode fabricated via ultrafast flash Joule heating (FJH) is reported, which uniformly anchors HEO nanoparticles (Fe─Co─Ni─Cr─Mn─O) onto vertically aligned Fe, N-doped carbon nanotubes grown on carbon cloth (HEO/Fe, N-CNTs/CC). This design synergizes CNT conductivity with HEO pseudocapacitance, achieving a record power density of 3.76 W m<sup>-2</sup>, surpassing the state-of-the-art HEO anode by 9.6% and bare carbon cloth by 2.2-fold. The entropy-broadened conduction bands and strengthened cytochrome adsorption (ΔE<sub>ads</sub> = -3.20 eV) reduce the electron tunneling distance to 2.47 Å, as revealed by DFT calculations. Furthermore, the anode promotes Geobacter enrichment (71% biofilm abundance) and riboflavin secretion, facilitating dual direct and mediated EET pathways. This work establishes entropy modulation as a universal strategy for high-performance bioelectrochemical systems, opening avenues for sustainable energy harvesting and environmental sensing.
Authors
- Shaoqin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6990-8728)
- Ruiwen Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3117-2425)
- Yunfeng Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0163-4908)
- Miao Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8820-9594)
- Zheng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8379-5686)
- Zhuo Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6552-0933)
- Yuhang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3057-2926)
Institutions
- Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
- Northeast Forestry University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-11-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202511164
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Microbial Fuel Cells and Bioremediation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.80