Publication date: 10th April 2014
Serge COSNIER
CNRS-Grenoble university, Département de Chimie Moléculaire UMR CNRS 5250, Université Joseph Fourier, BP-53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
The ever-increasing depletion of fossil fuels and the need for clean methods of producing electricity have stimulated the emergence of fuel cells that convert chemical energy into electrical energy. This concept was extrapolated to the development of biofuel cells that produce electrical energy from the enzymatic degradation of glucose and oxygen present in human metabolism. Considerable attention has recently been paid to the implantation of biofuel cells in the human body with the aim to power implanted medical devices.
Taking into account that the biointerface activity was related to the immobilized amount of catalysts and the specific surface of the conductive substrate, 3D structures were designed via the use of carbon nanotubes as building block [1]. Carbon nanotubes exhibit nanowire morphology, biocompatibility and excellent conductivity. Furthermore, nanotube modified electrodes offer a large electroactive surface together with a highly porous three-dimensional structure. The recent advances in term of enzyme immobilization and electrode materials used for enzyme wiring will be summarized. In particular, the possibility to functionalize carbon nanotubes by attaching specific docking sites for biomolecules or molecular catalysts will be described [2]. An example of biofuel cell based on carbon nanotube/enzyme compressions, employing glucose oxidase for glucose oxidation, and laccase for oxygen reduction will be reported [3,4]. The glucose biofuel cell delivered an impressive power density : 1.54 mW/cm2, 1.92mWmL-1 or 2.67mWg-1. The latter is able to constantly deliver 0.56mWhcm-2 under discharge at 0.5 V, showing among the best in vitro performances. We report also the first example of a glucose/H2O2 biofuel cell operating at 5 mM glucose under air at 37 °C in 0.14 M NaCl. At a bienzymatic cathode, the direct wiring of horseradish peroxidase achieves the electrocatalytic reduction of H2O2 concomitantly produced during the oxidation of glucose by glucose oxidase. This represents a novel alternative to the use of copper oxidases in conventional glucose/O2 biofuel cells for implantable applications.
This presentation will briefly survey the chronological evolution of the implantable glucose fuel cells from abiotic fuel cells to biofuel cells and their related examples implanted in insects, mollusks, arthropods and mammals. Moreover, the first example of a biofuel cell implanted in the abdominal cavity of a rat and its application to power a light-emitting diode (LED) and a digital thermometer will be described [5].
1. M. Holzinger, A. Le Goff, S. Cosnier, Electrochim. Acta 2012, 82, 179-190. 2. N. Lalaoui, K. Elouarzaki, A. Le Goff, M. Holzinger, S. Cosnier, Chem. Commun, in press. 3. ] A. Zebda, C. Gondran, M. Holzinger, A. Le Goff, P. Cinquin, S. Cosnier, Nature Commun. 2011, 2 : 370, 1365. 4. B. Reuillard, A. Le Goff, C. Agnès, M. Holzinger, A. Zebda, C. Gondran, K. Elouarzaki, S. Cosnier, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013, 15, 4892-4896. 5. A. Zebda, S. Cosnier, J.-P. Alcaraz, M. Holzinger, A. Le Goff, C. Gondran, F. Boucher, F. Giroud, K. Gorgy, H. Lamraoui, P. Cinquin. Nature Publishing Group, Sci. Rep. 2013, 3, 1516.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.