The relatively low sensitivity is an important reason for restricting the microbial fuel cell(MFC)sensors'application in low concentration biodegradable organic matter(BOM)detec-tion.The startup parameters,including substrate concentration,anode area and external resistance,were regulated to enhance the sensitivity of MFC sensors.The results demon-strated that both the substrate concentration and anode area were positively correlated with the sensitivity of MFC sensors,and an external resistance of 210 Ω was found to be optimal in terms of sensitivity of MFC sensors.Optimized MFC sensors had lower detection limit(1 mg/L)and higher sensitivity(Slope value of the linear regression curve was 1.02),which effectively overcome the limitation of low concentration BOM detection.The essential rea-son is that optimized MFC sensors had higher coulombic efficiency,which was beneficial to improve the sensitivity of MFC sensors.The main impact of the substrate concentration and anode area was to regulate the proportion between electrogens and nonelectrogens,biomass and living cells of the anode biofilm.The external resistance mainly affected the morphology structure and the proportion of living cells of the anode.This study demon-strated an effective way to improve the sensitivity of MFC sensors for low concentration BOM detection.