This paper reported a novel anode material, porous carbon with a defined pore size (DPC) matching
bacteria, for microbial fuel cell (MFC). The DPC was prepared by using silica spheres as templates and
sucrose as carbon precursor. The structure and morphology of the as-prepared DPC were characterized
with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy
(SEM), and its performance as anode of MFC based on Escherichia coli (E. coli) was evaluated
with chronoamperometry, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and polarization curve measurement. The result from
SEM demonstrates that pores in the as-prepared DPC are well defined with an average diameter of
400 nm, which is a little larger than that of E. coli, and the polarization curve measurement shows that
the as-prepared DPC exhibits superior performance as anode material loaded on carbon felt, delivering a
power output of 1606 mW m2
, compared to the 402 mW m2 of naked carbon felt anode, in the solution
containing 2 g/L glucose. The excellent performance of the as-prepared DPC is attributed to its
suitable pore size for accommodating E. coli strain, which facilitates the formation of bacterial biofilm
and the electron transfer between bacteria and anode.