Carbon supported iron-single atoms/ultrafine atom clusters mediated electron-proton coupling transfer for enhanced anaerobic digestion.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) represents a high-efficiency approach for resource recovery from organic wastewater. The metabolic imbalance between different anaerobic microorganisms is the key limiting factor for methanogenesis in AD process. To overcome this bottleneck, a carbonized Fe-based metal-organic framework material (CMIL-800) was developed in this study. This material integrated uniformly dispersed Fe single-atoms as well as their ultrafine clusters on the carbon, which generating stable potential differences for actively driving charge transfer in the AD system.