A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a promising renewable energy option, which enables the effective and sustainable harvesting of electrical power due to bacterial activity and, at the same time, can also treat wastewater and utilise organic wastes or renewable biomass. However, the practical implementation of MFCs is limited and, therefore, it is important to improve their performance before they can be scaled up. The surface modification of anode material is one way to improve MFC performance by enhancing bacterial cell adhesion, cell viability and extracellular electron transfer. The modification of graphite felt (GF), used as an anode in MFCs, by electrochemical oxidation followed by the treatment with ethylenediamine or p-phenylenediamine in one-step short duration reactions with the aim of introducing amino groups on the surface of GF led to the enhancement of the overall performance characteristics of MFCs. The MFC with the anode from GF modified with p-phenylenediamine provided approx. 32% higher voltage than the control MFC with a bare GF anode, when electric circuits of the investigated MFCs were loaded with resistors of 659 Ω. Its surface power density was higher by approx. 1.75 times than that of the control. Decreasing temperature down to 0 °C resulted in just an approx. 30% reduction in voltage generated by the MFC with the anode from GF modified with p-phenylenediamine.

Lead-acid battery (LAB) weight is a major downside stopping it from being adapted to electric/hybrid vehicles. Lead grids constitute up to 50% of LAB electrode’s weight and it only ensures electric connection to electrochemically active material and provides structural integrity. Using graphite felt (GF) as a current collector can reduce the electrode’s weight while increasing the surface area. Modification of GF with lead (II) oxide using impregnation and calcination techniques and lead (II) formate and acetate as precursors was conducted to produce composite electrodes. It was found that lead (II) formate is not a viable material for this purpose, whereas multiple impregnation in lead (II) acetate saturated solution and calcination in air leads to thermal destruction GF. However, impregnation and calcination under nitrogen atmosphere in three cycles produced a sample of good quality with a mass loading of lead (II) oxide that was 17.18 g g⁻¹ GF. This equates to only 5.5% of the total mass of composite electrode to be GF, which is immensely lower than lead grid mass in traditional electrodes. This result shows that a possible lightweight alternative of LAB electrode can be produced using the proposed modification method.

One of the possible ways of mitigating the primary lead-acid battery downside—mass— is to replace the heavy lead grids that can add up to half of the total electrode’s mass. The grids can be exchanged for a lightweight, chemically inert, and conductive material such as graphite felt. To reduce carbon surface area, Pb/PbO₂ can be electrochemically deposited on graphite felt. A flow-through reactor was applied to enhance penetration of adequate coverage of graphite felt fibers. Three types of electrolytes (acetate, nitrate, and methanesulfonate) and two additives (ligninsulfonate and Triton X-100) were tested. The prepared composite electrodes showed greater mechanical strength, up to 5 times lower electrical resistivity, and acted as Pb and PbO₂ electrodes in sulfuric acid electrolytes.