Enhancement of graphene based enzymatic glucose biofuel cell / Arman Amani Babadi

Arman Amani , Babadi (2018) Enhancement of graphene based enzymatic glucose biofuel cell / Arman Amani Babadi. PhD thesis, University of Malaya.

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Abstract

Nowadays, scientists and engineers around the world, attracted by the variety of high applicable implantable devices, supplying their required energy to sense, monitor, pump drugs, vibrate and report the collected data in sensing, wireless transmission devices in military service, homeland security, environmental monitoring and biomedical applications. This power source should be environmentally friendly with long lifetime and even implantable as well as capable of producing energy from the living organisms’ fluids. These required properties light up the idea of using enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) to generate the power. Glucose oxidase (GOx) is the most common enzyme which employs widely in the fabrication of glucose biofuel cells (GBFCs). Unfortunately, short lifetime and poor electron transfer of the enzyme to the electrode surface, limit GBFCs applications. Recent studies have indicated that 3-Dimensional graphene is a relatively novel material with unique properties that could make it useful in enzymatic biofuel cells. The graphene offers high electrical conductivity and highly porous structure. According to recent studies, carbon nanostructures can be widely used to immobilize the enzymes and transfer the electron from the enzyme active site to the electrode surface as well. In this project, 3-dimensional graphene is synthesized from the reduced graphene oxide. The synthesized 3D graphene employed to immobilize the glucose oxidase (GOx) on the surface of the glassy carbon (GC) electrode and enhance the electron transfer between them. The power output of the biofuel cell measured by employing the resistance box. The power output of 46.34 μW achieved, which corresponded to the power density of 164 μW cm-2 at 0.4 V. Furthermore, the results of testing fabricated EBFC reveal the recognizable enhancement in an enzyme lifetime of 230 days that is the great improvement compared with the literature. In addition, nano-hybrid of the Carbone Nanotubes (CNTs) and 3DG prepared and study as an alternative nanomaterial to immobilize the enzyme on the surface of the electrode. The CNTs/3DG nano-hybrid improved the lifetime of the enzyme to 230 days and increased the output power density to 253 μWcm-2. Owing to these results, novel 3DG and CNT/3DG nano-hybrid, enhanced the performance of the EBFCs, increase the lifetime of the enzymes, overcome the enzyme leaching challenge and finally improve the electron transfer between the enzyme active site and the electrode surface. The hybridized CNT/3DG nanocomposite is highly porous and conductive, which introduce it as a suitable candidate to immobilize GOx and fabricate EBFCs. The fabricated GBFC could generate the power for implantable devices, drug pumps, and biosensors and replace the usual batteries which commonly use to power the mentioned devices. 3DG and CNT/3DG could be used as an effective immobilization nanomaterial in the field of enzymatic biofuel cells, related research, such as biosensors, bioreactors, and even bring the commercial applications of implantable biofuel cell into the reality.

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