A Biopolymer Composite that Catalyzes the Reduction of Oxygen to Water

Abstract

A biopolymer composite consisting of polypyrrole, ABTS, and laccase (PAL) was electrodeposited onto the surface of an electrode and was shown to catalyze the reduction of dioxygen to water under acidic conditions. The catalytic activity of this biopolymer composite is highest at pH 4, decreasing with increasing pH. The activity of laccase immobilized within this polymer composite was found to be higher than laccase dissolved in solution when methanol was present or at elevated temperatures.

Performances of Enzymatic Glucose/O2 Biofuel Cells

“…It is a very simple technique since it only needs to dip the electrode into a solution containing both monomers and biomolecules. Then the growth of polymer film can be realized by different ways: chronoamperometry (Brunel et al, 2007), chronopotentiometry or cyclic voltammetry (Fei et al, 2007). Different monomers such as pyrrole (Habrioux et al, 2008), aniline (Timur et al, 2004) or phenol (Bartlett et al, 1992) can be electropolymerized.…”

Biocathodes for Dioxygen Reduction in Biofuel Cells

“…Out of the conducting polymers, only polypyrrole [128,129,131,132,143,[154][155][156] and poly-1,2-phenylenediamine [157] were used for laccase or bilirubin oxidase encapsulation by electropolymerization. Polypyrrole enhances enzyme stability against methanol [129], and its reticulation by glutaraldehyde treatment improves its performance in the flow system [131].…”

“…Polypyrrole enhances enzyme stability against methanol [129], and its reticulation by glutaraldehyde treatment improves its performance in the flow system [131].…”

“…This system seems to be promising because the continuous supply of the enzyme solves the problem of its instability while microfluidic geometry allows for membraneless contact between the catholyte and the anolyte. However, for the membraneless biofuel cell working in quiet conditions, immobilization of ABTS 2À occurs [101,106,128,129,[131][132][133][134]139,143,155,160,170,175,181,184,203].…”

“…ABTS 2À counterions were doped into conductive polymer (polypyrrole and its amino derivative) film together with laccase during the electropolymerization process [106,128,129,131,132,143]. In order to increase the active electrode surface, such a modified polypyrrole film was immobilized on the CNT-modified electrode [155].…”