Research Progress and Prospects of Nanozyme-Based Glucose Biofuel Cells

Abstract

The appearance and evolution of biofuel cells can be categorized into three groups: microbial biofuel cells (MBFCs), enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs), and enzyme-like nanomaterial (nanozyme)-based biofuel cells (NBFCs). MBFCs can produce electricity from waste; however, they have significantly low power output as well as difficulty in controlling electron transfer and microbial growth. EBFCs are more productive in generating electricity with the assistance of natural enzymes, but their vulnerability under diverse environmental conditions has critically hindered practical applications. In contrast, because of the intrinsic advantages of nanozymes, such as high stability and robustness even in harsh conditions, low synthesis cost through facile scale-up, and tunable catalytic activity, NBFCs have attracted attention, particularly for developing wearable and implantable devices to generate electricity from glucose in the physiological fluids of plants, animals, and humans. In this review, recent studies on NBFCs, including the synthetic strategies and catalytic activities of metal and metal oxide-based nanozymes, the mechanism of electricity generation from glucose, and representative studies are reviewed and discussed. Current challenges and prospects for the utilization of nanozymes in glucose biofuel cells are also discussed.

Application of Nanozymes in Environmental Monitoring, Management, and Protection

“…The biofuels of EBFC are usually sugar relatives, such as glucose, sucrose, fructose, alcohols (including ethanol and methanol), organic acids, and organic salts (such as sulfite). However, glucose-based EBFC have many limitations derived from natural enzymes, such as variability and instability, high production cost, and difficult electron transfer [ 193 , 194 ]. In this case, compared with natural enzymes, nanozymes have become potential catalytic materials for developing glucose biofuel cells due to their inherent characteristics (such as long-term stability, easy synthesis, low cost, and adjustable enzyme mimic activity).…”

SAM-Support-Based Electrochemical Sensor for Aβ Biomarker Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease

“…Among these, designing different kinds of electrodes requires expensive equipment along with skilled labor and amplifying the detectable signal is limited by a physical threshold, whereas diverse nanostructured materials on working electrodes have been intensively applied in laboratory environments employing metal, metal oxide, carbon, composite, conductive polymer, and SAM. Practically, tailoring the materials on the electrode surface to achieve a better performance has been conducted in a variety of research areas, like energy [ 91 , 92 ], electrochemical sensors [ 61 , 63 , 93 ], etc. Electrode-modified electrochemical sensors prove their effectiveness by obtaining high sensitivity and selectivity [ 61 , 63 , 93 ], as illustrated in Figure 3 .…”

Light-gated specific oxidase-like activity of a self-assembled Pt(ii) nanozyme for environmental remediation

“…Compared to natural enzymes, nanozymes exhibit superior catalytic performance, selectivity, and stability in various applications including point-of-care diagnostics, 7 biotechnology, 8 antibacterial agents, 9 and biofuel production. 10 Diverse natural enzyme-like catalytic activities have been achieved using nanozymes, such as peroxidase, 11,12 superoxide dismutase, 13,14 esterase, 15,16 oxidase, 17,18 catalase, 19,20 and haloperoxidase. 21,22 A notable feature of nanozymes is the more expansive physical and chemical operational windows, including high salt concentration, temperature, and pH tolerance.…”