Recent Advances in the Construction of Biofuel Cells Based Self‐powered Electrochemical Biosensors: A Review

Abstract

The application of biofuel cells (BFCs) for the construction of self‐powered electrochemical biosensors has recently received enormous attention with exciting advancements. The principle of BFCs for electrochemical biosensing is that the BFCs’ power output which is directly extracted by the biological reactions with the help of biocatalysts is closely related to the analyte's concentration. Such unique feature makes BFCs based electrochemical biosensors with two‐electrode system to be operated without the need of any external power source, which provides a more effective way for the miniaturization and convenient construction of electrochemical biosensors than the traditional electrochemical biosensors with three‐electrode system. Following our previous reviews (Electroanalysis 2012, 24, 197–209; Electroanalysis 2015, 27, 1786–1801), the current review is focused on the recent development and advances in the construction of BFCs based self‐powered electrochemical biosensors which are reported in the years between 2015 and 2018, with a particular emphasis on their possible practical applications in the fields of medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, food analysis and wearable devices. For these reported BFCs‐based self‐powered electrochemical biosensors, the design approaches are still within the scope of effects (i.e., substrate, inhibition, blocking, gene regulation, enzyme, co‐stabilization, competition, and hybrid effects) summarized by our previous reviews. The outlook, challenges and developing tendency of the future research for the construction of BFCs based self‐powered electrochemical biosensor are discussed in the end. We expect that the advanced electrochemical biosensors based on BFCs with the unique self‐powered capability will continue attracting increasing research interest and lead to new opportunities in various attractive applications related to analytical chemistry.

Organic Bioelectronics: From Functional Materials to Next‐Generation Devices and Power Sources

“…There is a substantial body of literature on EFCs for harvesting energy from bodily fluids, with excellent reviews summarizing recent advances such as flexible and wearable forms of EFCs. [210][211][212][213] Although EFCs rely on a clean energy source and biologically relevant conditions for operation, their relatively low power output and short lifetime have restricted their practical application. [211] The performance of EFCs is mainly limited by the poor electrical communication between the enzymes and www.advmat.de www.advancedsciencenews.com their associated charge collectors due to the distance that separates the electrode from the enzyme redox center.…”

Challenges and Opportunities of Carbon Nanomaterials for Biofuel Cells and Supercapacitors: Personalized Energy for Futuristic Self-Sustainable Devices

“…Outstandingly, compared with the noble-metal catalysts used in conventional fuel cells, the biocatalysts used in the BFCs are efficient and highly selective toward specific fuels. Moreover, advantages of these devices include viability in numerous potential applications, ranging from self-powered biosensors [48,49] to logic devices [50], as well as implantable modular power supplies [51]. The self-powered biosensing applications, based on the utilization of carbon-based BFCs, will be further discussed in Section 4.…”

“…For instance, a complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (CMOS) wireless biosensing system tracking glucose and lactate concentrations, which consume ~1.2 µW of power, could be solely powered by BFCs [65]. In addition to directing the self-powered detection of metabolites, BFC-based devices have been applied for various other detection mechanisms [48,49]. Stretchable carbon-based BFCs, used as wearable self-powered sensors, have held enormous potential for personalized technology [15].…”

Cobalt sulfides/carbon nanohybrids: a novel biocatalyst for nonenzymatic glucose biofuel cells and biosensors

“…[1][2][3][4][5] During the anode reaction, glucose oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase is usually used for the oxidation of glucose, 6 while laccase or bilirubin oxidase is adopted as the cathodic catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). 4,7 In the past decade, a few glucose biofuel cells have been successfully implanted in organisms such as oranges, 8 clams, 9 snails 10 and rats. 11,12 However, the practical applications of glucose biofuel cells are limited due to the poor stability, 13 rough immobilization technology 14 and susceptibility to the operating environment of the enzymes.…”