Formate/formic acid has been an intriguing fuel for fuel cells and biofuel cells over the last two decades. The common challenge with formate/formic acid biofuel cells has been the use of NAD-dependent formate dehydrogenase, which requires a diffusive cofactor and problematic cofactor regeneration systems. In this paper, we explore the bioelectro-oxidation of formate using Mo-containing formate dehydrogenase from E. coli (Mo-FDH) for development of a new HCOO − /O 2 enzymatic fuel cell (EFC). Mo-FDH was coupled with a benzylpropylviologen-based linear polyethylenimine (BPV-LPEI) redox polymer to fabricate a formate bioanode and laccase incorporated with anthracene-modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Ac-MWCNTs) to promote direct electron transfer was used for the O 2 biocathode. The resulting Mo-FDH/laccase EFC has an open-circuit potential of 1.28 ± 0.05 V, with corresponding maximum current and power densities of 17 ± 7 μA cm −2 and 18 ± 6 μW cm −2 , respectively. This FDH contains a molybdenum-coordinated selenocysteine (SeCys) residue, essential for catalytic activity, and two molybdopterin guanine dinucleotides (MGDs), with just one [4Fe-4S] cluster for electron transfer to and from the active site.13,14 Bassegoda et al.
13and Robinson et al. 15 showed that Mo-FDH from E.coli adsorbed on the surface of a graphite-epoxy rotating disk working electrode can catalyze the reversible interconversion of CO 2 and formate with direct electron transfer at ∼ −0.4 V vs. SHE (pH 6.8).16 However, the current densities of DET electrodes are lower than what is necessary for biofuel cell applications.In this study, we constructed a MET-type bioanode with Mo-FDH by employing a viologen-based redox polymer (benzylpropylviologen-modified linear poly(ethylenimine), BPV-LPEI) which is able to facilitate the bioelectrocatalytic oxidation of formate at low potentials. While a DET approach could theoretically offer improved open-circuit potentials of a resulting EFC, the current densities obtained from DET-based bioelectrodes is almost always dwarfed by those obtained from appropriately designed MET bioanodes, due to a combination of increased enzyme loading, the ability of redox polymers to undergo "self-exchange" (creating an expanded 3D network of electronically-connected yet immobilized enzyme) and increased interfacial electron transfer rates (k ET ) which are commonly poor for DET-based bioelectrodes.17,18 Therefore, we investigated a redox polymer with low oxidation potentials to ensure near theoretical OCPs for the EFC. Several different mechanisms for FDH-catalyzed formate oxidation have been proposed. 5,9,14,19,20 It was shown by Maia et al. that FDH requires an activation step by its reduction using viologen or an artificial reducer.9 Robinson et al. have proposed a reductive activation to create a stabilized form of the SeCys dissociated state and it was mentioned that this state is also possible upon incubation of the protein with reducing agents (such as sodium dithionite (DT)). 15,19 Thus, we evaluated the activat...