Enhanced degradation of diclofenac with Ru/Fe modified anode microbial fuel cell: Kinetics, pathways and mechanisms.

• Ru/Fe modified electrode was prepared by reduction and coating. • DCF-degradation efficiency was enhanced by using Ru/Fe-MFC compared to CF-MFC. • Bacteria for degrading DCF and producing electricity were enriched in Ru/Fe-MFC. • Mechanisms of synergistic reaction of Ru/Fe and bacteria were revealed. A microbial fuel cell (MFC) was constructed with a Ru/Fe-modified-anode prepared by reduction and coating for enhancing diclofenac (DCF) degradation. Results showed that Ru0 and Fe0 were dispersed uniformly on Ru/Fe-modified-electrode surface, and Ru/Fe existed as an alloy structure. Due to catalysis of Ru/Fe, both electrochemical activity and DCF-degradation performance of Ru/Fe-modified-anode-MFC (Ru/Fe-MFC) were enhanced compared to carbon-felt-anode-MFC (CF-MFC). The maximum power density of Ru/Fe-MFC reached 0.600 W m−2, and DCF-degradation in Ru/Fe-MFC followed the pseudo-first-order-kinetic model with k obs of 0.711 d−1 which was 1.08, 1.34 and 2.21 times higher than that of Ru-modified-anode-MFC (Ru-MFC), Fe-modified-andoe-MFC (Fe-MFC) and CF-MFC, respectively. Results also showed that DCF-degradation and power generation would compete for electrons in Ru/Fe-MFC. Ru/Fe-modified-anode accelerated the enrichment of electro-active bacteria and DCF-degrading bacteria such as Geobacter, Clostridium, Sedimentibacter, Pseudomonas and Desulfovibrionaceae. Stepwise dechlornation occurred for DCF-degradation mainly due to synergistic reaction of Ru/Fe and DCF-degrading bacteria within Ru/Fe-MFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]