Increase of electrical properties using a novel mixed buffer system in an enzyme fuel cell

Abstract

Environment-friendly biocatalytic energy is considered to represent an attractive alternative to chemical catalystbased cells due to its renewability and better operation at low temperature. However, electrical biocatalysts have a low activity and electrical power. For increasing electrical properties of biocatalyst, a novel mixed buffer (phosphate and 3-morpholinopropanesulfonic acid (MOPS)) system was applied to an enzyme-based biofuel cell with microperoxidase (MP-11)-modified Au electrode. The cathodic electrical properties were increased by the phosphate and MOPS-mixed buffer solution. It was identified that the novel mixed buffer system obtained stronger ionic strength from phosphate buffer and better enzyme activity from MOPS buffer. The highest results of cyclic voltammetry were obtained when the proportion of phosphate to MOPS was nearly 1:1 and the pH was 7.0~7.3. In addition, the novel mixed buffer led to the maximum power density (ca. 62.7 µW/cm 2