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Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can directly convert the chemical energy stored in organic matter to electrical energy, and are of considerable interest for power generation and wastewater treatment. However, the current MFCs typically exhibit unsatisfactorily low power densities largely limited by the sluggish transmembrane and extracellular electron transfer processes. Here, we report a rational strategy to significantly boost the charge transport and extraction efficiency in Shewanella biofilms by introducing trans/outer-membrane silver nanoparticles to facilitate the transmembrane and extracellular electron transfer processes. The resulting Shewanella-Ag hybrid MFCs deliver a maximum current density of 38.5 A/m2, power density of 6.63 W/m2, and single cell turn-over frequency of 8.6*10^5 s-1, all more than doubling those of the best MFCs reported to date. Additionally, the hybrid biofilms feature an excellent fuel utilization efficiency with a Coulombic efficiency of 81%, also markedly exceeding the previous record.

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