Solubilized Enzymatic Fuel Cell (SEFC) for Quasi-Continuous Operation Exploiting Carbohydrate Block Copolymer Glyconanoparticle Mediators

Abstract

Enzymatic biofuel cells are ecofriendly power sources that can deliver μW−mW outputs from renewable substrates, but their stability is a major issue owing to enzyme fragility. The vast majority of reported biofuel cells can only generate power continuously for relatively short periods of time. Here we report a novel "solubilized enzymatic fuel cell (SEFC)" concept for continuous long-term operation. Avoiding surface immobilization techniques allows biocatalytic activity to be easily restored or replenished. The biofuel cell exploits freely diffusing enzymes and β-cyclodextrin-coated glyconanoparticles with entrapped quinone and thiazoline redox mediators, for mediated glucose and oxygen conversion. The cell was designed with permselective membranes to enable substrate and proton diffusion while trapping the enzymes and glyconanoparticles in separate compartments. The SEFC exhibited a peak power loss of only 26.3% after 7 days of continuous charge−discharge cycling at 50 μA; thus, SEFCs may be envisaged to power lab-on-a-chip devices for periods of several weeks.

From Enzyme Stability to Enzymatic Bioelectrode Stabilization Processes

“…Applying a suitable magnetic field may allow assembling or release of the biocatalyst on the electrode. Cosnier et al proposed to use enzymes and redox mediators encapsulated in glyconoparticles, both diffusing in solution [303]. This strategy was supposed to allow protein and mediators to freely rotate for an efficient ET and to offer in addition the possibility of easy refreshing of the biocatalyst by a simple exchange of the solutions.…”

Integrated Electrochemical Biosensors for Detection of Waterborne Pathogens in Low-Resource Settings

“…Due to miniaturization and low-energy requirements, a significant amount of research has been dedicated to the development of cheap and disposable energy sources for these devices. One such group of energy sources that has seen success is biofuel cells, such as those powered by enzymes or microbes as mediators for the conversion of glucose and oxygen as well as other digestate [55,56]. A manufacturing avenue already exists to produce plastic-based sensing platforms in the form of printed circuit boards (PCB).…”

“…Conventional techniques require larger energy inputs and, therefore, disposable and environmentally non-invasive energy options are generally not a viable option [81]. However, because of the miniaturized nature of in situ biosensor devices being developed, the utility of enzyme/microbial-based energy fuel cells have promising potential [55,56]. Over the past decade, several research groups have worked on the development of biosensing devices that are powered using integrated microbial fuel cells.…”

Functionalizable Glyconanoparticles for a Versatile Redox Platform

“…Amphiphilic block copolymers (BCPs) are ideal building blocks for materials science. Their self-assembly has attracted great attention for many years because they can provide in solution different three-dimensional morphologies such as spherical micelles, vesicles, cylindrical micelles, lamellae and others structures that have attractive applications in biomaterials, catalysis, photoelectronic materials, biomedicine and more recently, in bioelectrochemistry applications [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. To obtain nanoparticles with diblock copolymers, which are composed of two chemically hydrophobic and hydrophilic different blocks, the copolymers were dissolved in a first step in a mixture of solvents, allowing the solubilization of the different blocks.…”