Self-Powered Wireless Carbohydrate/Oxygen Sensitive Biodevice Based on Radio Signal Transmission

Abstract

Here for the first time, we detail self-contained (wireless and self-powered) biodevices with wireless signal transmission. Specifically, we demonstrate the operation of self-sustained carbohydrate and oxygen sensitive biodevices, consisting of a wireless electronic unit, radio transmitter and separate sensing bioelectrodes, supplied with electrical energy from a combined multi-enzyme fuel cell generating sufficient current at required voltage to power the electronics. A carbohydrate/oxygen enzymatic fuel cell was assembled by comparing the performance of a range of different bioelectrodes followed by selection of the most suitable, stable combination. Carbohydrates (viz. lactose for the demonstration) and oxygen were also chosen as bioanalytes, being important biomarkers, to demonstrate the operation of the self-contained biosensing device, employing enzyme-modified bioelectrodes to enable the actual sensing. A wireless electronic unit, consisting of a micropotentiostat, an energy harvesting module (voltage amplifier together with a capacitor), and a radio microchip, were designed to enable the biofuel cell to be used as a power supply for managing the sensing devices and for wireless data transmission. The electronic system used required current and voltages greater than 44 µA and 0.57 V, respectively to operate; which the biofuel cell was capable of providing, when placed in a carbohydrate and oxygen containing buffer. In addition, a USB based receiver and computer software were employed for proof-of concept tests of the developed biodevices. Operation of bench-top prototypes was demonstrated in buffers containing different concentrations of the analytes, showcasing that the variation in response of both carbohydrate and oxygen biosensors could be monitored wirelessly in real-time as analyte concentrations in buffers were changed, using only an enzymatic fuel cell as a power supply.

Nanostructured Inorganic Materials at Work in Electrochemical Sensing and Biofuel Cells

“…Thus, an alternative option is supplying the power for sensors used for environmental monitoring, particularly for possible homeland security applications that need a shorter operational time (hours to months) [192,[214][215][216][217][218][219][220]. Consequently, an elegant way should consist of extracting electrical power from biological sources that might include animals or plants, while the catalytic electrodes could be minimally invasive or even located on their surface, printed as a "tattoo" [192].…”

“…The system continues transmitting until it discharges the super-capacitor to below the 1.5 V before the automatic cyclic activation and wireless information transmission, and it will stop sending data when all the sugar and/or O 2 within the juice is exhausted. These preliminary tests with a nanomaterials-based fuel cell extracting electrical energy from biofluids open new prospects in bionanotechnology engineering and could be extended to a large area of the bioelectronics and healthcare industry that is moving toward wearable biomedical devices [2,219,[221][222][223][224][225]. The outlined effectiveness of nanoscale inorganic materials as "abiotic catalysts" is not aiming to replace biocatalysts, but rather to constitute an alternative for the elaboration of efficient systems that harvest energy from biological sources for various sensing and wireless information-processing devices within biomedical, homeland security, and environmental monitoring applications.…”

Implantable biofuel cells operating in vivo: Providing sustainable power for bioelectronic devices: From biofuel cells to cyborgs

“…Two approaches have been applied to resolve the low voltage problem: (i) assembling biofuel cells in series electrically, thus increasing the total output voltage [59,[70][71][72], and (ii) collecting produced electrical energy in capacitors / charge pumps for the burst release in short pulses [73][74][75][76]. The latter approach has already been applied for activating a wireless transmitting electronic device, however using nonimplantable enzyme-based [76,77] or microbial biofuel cells [73]. These approaches, particularly used with implantable enzyme-based biofuel cells, will be exemplified and discussed below.…”

Fabrication of high surface area graphene electrodes with high performance towards enzymatic oxygen reduction

“…Myrothretium verrucaria bilirubin oxidase (BOx) and Trametes hirsuta laccase (Lac) have been selected as biocatalysts on the biocathodes, which could be used in enzymatic fuel cells [21]. However, this fabrication method of nanostructured electrodes can be extended to any electrochemical application where high surface area and high electrical conductivity are needed, and where oxygen functionalities can be used for the immobilization of different biogenic and non-biogenic catalysts.…”