Paper based biofuel cells: Incorporating enzymatic cascades for ethanol and methanol oxidation

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 40; no. 42; pp. 14661 - 14666
• Main Authors: Lau, Carolin, Moehlenbrock, Michael J., Arechederra, Robert L., Falase, Akinbayowa, Garcia, Kristen, Rincon, Rosalba, Minteer, Shelley D., Banta, Scott, Gupta, Gautam, Babanova, Sofia, Atanassov, Plamen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 09-11-2015
• Subjects: Enzymatic fuel cells; Enzyme cascade; Ethanol; Methanol; Paper-based fuel cells; Paper-based fuel cells; Ethanol; Enzymatic fuel cells; Enzyme cascade; Methanol
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.06.108

Here we developed a flow-based system resulting in improved performance of enzyme cascade-based biofuel cells. A paper-based biofuel cell with passive laminar flow was build to show the impact of flow on the performance of two different enzyme cascades – methanol and ethanol cascade. Both cascades demonstrated enhanced electrochemical output as a consequence of the decreased diffusion path of reaction intermediates identifying the intermediates diffusion in between enzymatic active sites as the rate limiting step in cascade operating systems.
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•Paper-based biofuel cell was used for enzymatic cascade studies.•Two enzyme methanol cascade and a three enzyme ethanol cascade were explored.•Enzymatic cascades have improved performance over the single enzyme system.•The importance of transport of fuel and intermediates in the cascade was shown.