A Glucose Biofuel Cell to Generate Electricity

We fabricated an enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) device based on glucose as fuel, the bioanode consisting in a commercial carbon cloth electrode containing the glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme. The bioanode was prepared by immobilizing GOx in a Nafion matrix. The outcome of the immobilization procedure was tested by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) which indicated a good catalytic activity and stability of the immobilized enzyme toward the reaction of glucose oxidation. The bioanode was the assembled in a glucose fuel cell, using a ferricyanide cathode and a Nafion 117 membrane as electrolyte. Polarization and power density curves were then acquired to evaluate the electrochemical performance of the EFC device demonstrating the applicability of the GOx-modified electrode as promising bioanode for energy production.