Nanoscale Enzyme Reactors (NERs) for Biofuel Cells
EMSL Project ID
24826
Abstract
Enzyme-based biofuel cells use immobilized enzymes on electrodes for the conversion of chemical energy of biofuels (such as glucose, ethanol, or oil) to the electrical energy (Figure 1a). One of the critical advantages of biofuel cells over conventional fuel cells is that they can be operated without a membrane separating the oxygen from fuel, by taking advantage of the enzyme specificity for each substrate. This approach opens up the possibility of unlimited miniaturization of fuel cells, and can be used for low-powered implantable devices (such as pacemakers) or communication devices. As an example, Heller et al.1 developed a miniaturized compartment-less glucose-oxygen biofuel cells, and tested its operation in a living plant (Figure 1b). However, the critical problem was that the lifetime of implantable fuel cell was about a few days due to the poor stability of enzymes. So, a lot for attention is being given to the enzyme stabilization to achieve the practical applications of biofuel cells with a reasonably long lifetime.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-05-29
End Date
2009-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Lin SSY, DH Kim, MH Engelhard, and SY Ha. 2010. "Water-induced Formation of Cobalt Oxides Over Supported Cobalt/Ceria-Zirconia Catalysts under Ethanol-Steam Conditions." Journal of Catalysis 273(2):229-235. doi:10.1016/j.jcat.2010.05.016
M. I. Kim, J. Kim,- J. Lee, H. B. Na, T. Hyeon, H. G. Park and H. N. Chang, “1-Dimensional Crosslinked Enzyme Aggregates in SBA-15: Superior Catalytic Behavior to Conventional Enzyme Immobilization”, Micropor. Mesopor. Mat. 111(1-3), 18-23 (2008).