Enzymatic Glucose Biofuel CELL Based on Graphene

Abstract

Nowadays, by increasing the amount of implantable devices with high variety of applications, supplying their required energy to sense, monitor, vibrate, pump and report the collected data, has concerned the scientists and engineers around the world. This power source should be environmentally friendly with long life time and even implantable as well as capable of producing energy from the living organisms’ fluids. These required properties, light up the idea of using enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) to generate the power. Unfortunately, EBFCs are limited by their short life time and poor electron transfer from the enzyme active site to the electrode surface. Recent studies have indicated that 3D graphene is a relatively novel material with unique properties that could make it useful in enzymatic biofuel cells. The graphene offers high electrical conductivity and high porous structure. According to recent studies carbon nanostructures can be used widely to immobilize the enzymes and transfer the electron from enzyme active site to the electrode surface as well. In this proposed research project, graphene oxide will be synthesised via the simplified Hummers method and then reduced into three dimensional graphene. However, the high efficiency of 3D graphene-enzyme biocomposite in a biofuel cell requires a suitable porous architecture that maximizes the enzyme immobilization at nanostructure and increase the electron transfer. In order to further increase the efficiency of biofuel cell, considerable effort has to be exerted to improve the enzyme lifetime and the amount of transferred electron. It has been well-established that immobilizing the redox enzyme using the carbon nanostructures hold a number of advantages such as increasing the lifetime of enzyme, decreasing the enzyme leaking as well as enhanced electrical charge transfer properties. In this contribution, graphene hydrogel has been synthesized and used to immobilize the enzyme on the surface of the electrode for enhancement of the EBFCs generated power.