High-power biofuel cell textiles from woven biscrolled carbon nanotube yarns

Abstract

Biofuel cells that generate electricity from glucose in blood are promising for powering implantable biomedical devices. Immobilizing interconnected enzyme and redox mediator in a highly conducting, porous electrode maximizes their interaction with the electrolyte and minimizes diffusion distances for fuel and oxidant, thereby enhancing power density. Here we report that our separator-free carbon nanotube yarn biofuel cells provide an open-circuit voltage of 0.70 V, and a maximum areal power density of 2.18 mW cm À 2 that is three times higher than for previous carbon nanotube yarn biofuel cells. Biofuel cell operation in human serum provides high areal power output, as well as markedly increased lifetime (83% remained after 24 h), compared with previous unprotected biofuel cells. Our biscrolled yarn biofuel cells are woven into textiles having the mechanical robustness needed for implantation for glucose energy harvesting.

One-year stability for a glucose/oxygen biofuel cell combined with pH reactivation of the laccase/carbon nanotube biocathode

“…It is noteworthy that the total power consumption over the year is in the range of 30 mWh, which is in the same order of magnitude compared to classic 1.5-V button cells used in many small electronic devices. For comparison, the high power GBFC reported in the literature was only studied for hours of continuous discharges or for one month storage stability [18][19][20].…”

Wired enzymes in mesoporous materials: A benchmark for fabricating biofuel cells

“…1.5 mm thick (1.45 mW cm −2 ) [50], and by two orders of magnitude the power density obtained by a BFC that was based on woven biscrolled CNT yarns of 50 μm diameter (1.18 mW cm −2 ) [54] (Table 1, Figs. 1C and 2C) or the BFC based on CNT microwires of 9.5 μm diameter (0.74 mW cm −2 ) [49].…”

Nanostructured Inorganic Materials at Work in Electrochemical Sensing and Biofuel Cells

“…The great excitement generated by BFCs was to provide a sustainable power supply for medical implants by harvesting energy from body tissues (sugar and oxygen). Various strategies for enzymatic electrode elaboration have been developed by different groups leading to efficient performances in vitro [30,[175][176][177][178][179][180][181] (from 1 to over 1000 µW·cm -2 ) and in those implanted in living organisms [124,[182][183][184][185][186][187][188]. Aiming to provide larger specific surface areas and a higher density of surface active sites, different methods have been developed to substitute one of the electrodes, mostly the anode, with an abiotic one, leading to the concept of the hybrid biofuel cell (hBFC) [180,[189][190][191], and in some cases, all the electrodes are substituted by abiotic catalysts [174,181,[192][193][194][195][196].…”