Investigation of GDH/Laccase Enzymes for Bio-energy Generation Systems

Biofuel cells are considered the most promising future energy source. This paper presents a bio-energy generation system based on the micro-fluidic platform which utilized enzymes as catalysts and glucose as a fuel to process the electrobiochemical energy conversion and storage in a cell. This is known as the enzymatic bio-fuel cell (EBFC). It is designed to consist of two modified gold electrodes and a thickness-controlled PDMS as the micro fluidic channel for transporting the glucose solution. Electrical energy is generated by redox reaction through the process of glucose oxidation and oxygen reduction in the presence of glucose dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1.47) and laccase (E.C. 1.10.3.2), the enzyme catalysts. The entire chemical reaction process is designed to take place between the cathode and anode without a proton exchange membrane. In addition to this project, some conducting materials, such as electronic-grade carbon nanotubes (EG-CNTs), palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been analyzed to determine the effects on the power output. These materials were annexed to the gold electrodes and enzymes. The results show that using CNTs can provide steady and higher power output, the largest generated power density is 3.52 mu Wm(-3). The results also show that the biofuel cell could operate as a glucose biosensor which responds to the concentration of glucose.