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ENZYMATIC BIOFUEL cell

Electron highways

Nature Energy volume 3, pages 543–544 (2018)Cite this article

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The performance of enzymatic biofuel cells is greatly hindered by the poor electron transfer between enzyme catalysts and electrode surfaces. Now, an efficient electrical connection is made by coupling conventional direct and mediated electron transfer mechanisms, leading to much improved power density and stability.

In their approach, the researchers chose laccase, a well-investigated multi-copper oxidase enzyme with high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, as the enzyme catalyst (Fig. 1b). With this, they developed a multi-functional electron transfer system (Fig. 1b,c) that was immobilized on a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) surface. Their electron transfer system includes three parts, a 2,2’-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) compound in the middle with a pyrene group at one end and a polypyrrole group at the other end. It is denoted as polypyrrole–ABTS–pyrene in Fig. 1c. While ABTS is a commonly used MET mediator for ORR enzymes3, Lee and colleagues showed that the pyrene group is able to orient towards the single Cu active site (known as T1 redox centre) in laccase to minimize the enzyme–electrode distance, possibly via its adjacent hydrophobic binding pocket5 (shown in blue in Fig. 1b), so as to enhance the MET from ABTS to laccase. It is worth mentioning that such an orientation design is generally applied in conjunction with the DET mechanism. The other terminal group in this electron transfer system, the polypyrrole conducting polymer, provides an anchoring site for immobilization on MWCNTs and also helps transfer electrons from the electrode to ABTS. This triple-combination approach with multiple functions differs from the conventional DET and MET strategies, which usually just have one of these functions.

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Fig. 1: Biofuel cell mechanisms and the polypyrrole–ABTS–pyrene based bioelectrode.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia

    Huajie Yin

  2. Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China

    Zhiyong Tang

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  1. Huajie Yin
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  2. Zhiyong Tang
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Correspondence to Zhiyong Tang.

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Yin, H., Tang, Z. Electron highways. Nat Energy 3, 543–544 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0183-3

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