Heat-treated stainless steel felt as scalable anode material for bioelectrochemical systems

This work reports a simple and scalable method to convert stainless steel (SS) felt into an effective anode for bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) by means of heat treatment. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry elucidated that the heat treatment generated an iron oxide rich layer on the SS felt surface. The iron oxide layer dramatically enhanced the electroactive biofilm formation on SS felt surface in BESs. Consequently, the sustained current densities achieved on the treated electrodes (1 cm2) were around 1.5 ± 0.13 mA/cm2, which was seven times higher than the untreated electrodes (0.22 ± 0.04 mA/cm2). To test the scalability of this material, the heat-treated SS felt was scaled up to 150 cm2 and similar current density (1.5 mA/cm2) was achieved on the larger electrode. The low cost, straightforwardness of the treatment, high conductivity and high bioelectrocatalytic performance make heat-treated SS felt a scalable anodic material for BESs.