Effects of Fe-Co@N-BC anode on degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) in microbial fuel cells

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a common antibiotic, is commonly used to treat urinary tract infections and intestine infections caused by sensitive bacteria. Water pollution is exacerbated as a result of its abuse and discharge. The feasibility and advantage of using microbial fuel cells (MFC) to degrade sulfamethoxazole have been proved. However, MFC is limited in wastewater treatment due to low bioelectric catalytic efficacy and expensive electrode costs. In this research, high performance [email protected]/BC anode materials were prepared by bimetal and N doping to improve the electrochemical performance and biocompatibility of the electrodes, and [email protected]/BC anode MFC was applied to the degradation of SMX. The results show that the MFC of [email protected]/BC anode has the lowest internal resistance (144.46 Ω), greatly improves the electrical performance, and the maximum degradation rate of SMX reaches 89.1 %, which is 2.1 times that of a conventional anaerobic reactor. The results show that [email protected]/BC anode has good physicochemical properties and the [email protected]/BC anode MFC reactor can effectively degrade SMX.