The efficiency and sustainability of microbial fuel cell (MFC) are heavily dependent on the cathode performance. We show here that the use of graphite fiber brush (GBF) together with graphite granules (GGs) as a basal material for biocathode (MFC reactor type R1) significantly improve the performance of a MFC compared with MFCs using GGs (MFC reactor type R2) or GFB (MFC reactor type R3) individually. Compared with R3, the use of the combination biocathode (R1) can shorten the start-up time by 53.75%, improve coulombic efficiencies (CEs) by 21.0 +/- 2.7% at external resistance (R-EX) of 500 Omega, and increase maximum power densities by 38.2 +/- 12.6%. Though the start-up time and open circuit voltage (OCV) of the reactor R2 are similar to R1, the CE (R-EX = 500 Omega) and maximum power density of R2 are 21.4 +/- 1.7% and 38.2 +/- 15.6% lower than that of R1. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses indicate the bacteria on cathodes of R1 and R2 are richer than that of R3. Molecular taxonomic analyses reveal that the biofilm formed on the biocathode surface is dominated by strains belonging to Nitrobacter, Achromobacter, Acinetobacter, and Bacteroidetes. Combination of GFB and GGs as biocathode material in MFC is more efficient and can achieve sustainable electricity recovery from organic substances, which substantially increases the viability and sustainability of MFCs. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.