Nitric acid and thermal activation of graphite granules were explored to increase the electrocatalytic performance of dissolved oxygen reduction at neutral pH for microbial fuel cell (MFC) applications. Electrochemical experiments showed an improvement of +400mV in open circuit potential for graphite granules when they were activated. The improvement of ORR performance observed with activated granules was correlated to the increase of Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface of the activated material and the emergence of nitrogen superficial groups revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis on its surface.The use of activated graphite granules in the cathodic compartment of a dual-chamber MFC led to a high open circuit voltage of 1050mV, which is among one of the highest reported so far. The stable performance of this cathode material (current density of 96Am −3 at +200mV/Ag–AgCl) over a period of 10days demonstrated its applicability as a cathode material without any costly noble metal.