Visible-Light Induced Self-Powered Sensing Platform Based on a Photofuel Cell

Abstract

A self-powered sensing system possesses the capacity of harvesting energy from the environment and has no requirement for external electrical power supply during the chemical sensing of analytes. Herein, we design an enzyme-free self-powered sensing platform based on a photofuel cell (PFC) driven by visible-light, using glucose as a model analyte. The fabricated PFC consists of a Ni(OH)2/CdS/TiO2 photoanode and a hemin-graphene (HG) nanocomposite coated cathode in separated chambers. Under visible-light irradiation, glucose in the anodic chamber is facilely oxidized on Ni(OH)2/CdS/TiO2 while H2O2 in the cathodic chamber is catalytically reduced by HG, which generates a certain cell output sensitive to the variation of glucose concentration. Thus, a PFC based self-powered sensor is realized for glucose detection. Compared to the existing enzymatic self-powered glucose sensors, our proposed PFC based strategy exhibits much lower detection concentration. Moreover, it avoids the limitation of conventional enzyme immobilized electrodes and has the potential to develop high-performance self-powered sensors with broader analyte species.

Solution‐Processed GaSe Nanoflake‐Based Films for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting and Photoelectrochemical‐Type Photodetectors

“…[42,55,56] Meanwhile, the distance between the photogenerated charges and the surface area is virtually reduced to zero, [42,55,56] suppressing electron-hole recombination losses. [57] The validation of the GaSe nanoflakes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactions could pave the way toward the design of novel GaSe-based PEC-type photodetectors/PEC sensors that can operate with low voltage sources, or even without external energy supply systems, [50,[58][59][60] as well as eliminate complex device manufacturing. Notably, by detecting an analyte via photoinduced electrochemical reactions, PEC sensors offer several advantages over electrochemical sensor, since they can operate in differential mode to reduce the background signal (down to the limit of lock-in detection noise) [60,61] and avoid frequent recalibrations.…”

Preparation and characterization of 0D Au NPs@3D BiOI nanoflower/2D NiO nanosheet array heterostructures and their application as a self-powered photoelectrochemical biosensing platform

“…19 Self-powered PEC biosensors can be divided into three major categories: p type/p-p heterostructure, 12 n type/n-n heterostructure 3,4,17 and photofuel cell type. 20 P-type semiconductors, which are the opposite of n-type semiconductors, react more easily with electron acceptors (such as dissolved oxygen) than with electron donors (such as glutathione, ascorbic acid, and sodium sulte) in the electrolyte, indicating their good potential for anti-interference from reducing substances. 12,21,22 In other words, p-type semiconductors are more stable than n-type semiconductors toward oxidation reactions.…”

A solar cell for maximizing voltage up to the level difference of two photocatalysts: optimization and clarification of the electron pathway

“…16 In this study, the optimization of cell conguration, reason for the complex current-voltage dependence, fundamental understandings for the electron (e À ) pathway in the SC, and reasons for the overpotential are claried. In contrast to various photoFCs, the SC for the use of glucose, 8,9 the SCs comprising a photoanode and a Pt-cathode, 10,11 and photoelectrocatalytic cells, 12-14 the developed SC directly extracts the V corresponding to the band-gap values ($3 V) per cell without using fuel.…”