Kinetic limitations of a bioelectrochemical electrode using carbon nanotube-attached glucose oxidase for biofuel cells

Xueyan Zhao, Hongfei Jia, Jungbae Kim, Ping Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been used for various bioelectrochemical applications, presumably for substantial improvement in performance. However, often only moderate results observed, with many governing factors have been considered and suggested yet without much systematic evaluation and verification. In this study, CNT-supported glucose oxidase (CNT-GOx) was examined in the presence of 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ). The intrinsic Michaelis parameters of the reaction catalyzed by CNT-GOx were found very close to those of native GOx. However, the Nafion entrapment of CNT-GOx for an electrode resulted in a much lower activity due to the limited availability of the embedded enzyme. Interestingly, kinetic studies revealed that the biofuel cell employing such an enzyme electrode only generated a power density equivalent to <40% of the reaction capability of the enzyme on electrode. It appeared to us that factors such as electron and proton transfer resistances can be more overwhelming than the heterogeneous reaction kinetics in limiting the power generation of such biofuel cells.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1068-1074
Number of pages7
JournalBiotechnology and bioengineering
Volume104
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 15 2009

Keywords

  • Biocatalysis
  • Biofuel cell
  • Biotransformation kinetics
  • Carbon nanotube
  • Enzyme electrode
  • Glucose oxidase

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