Nitrogen-doped graphene approach to enhance the performance of a membraneless enzymatic biofuel cell

作     者：Alireza AHMADIAN YAZDI Jie XU 

作者机构：Department of Mechanical and Industrial EngineeringUniversity of Illinois at ChicagoChicagoIL 60607USA 

出 版 物：《Frontiers in Energy》 (能源前沿（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第12卷第2期

页      面：233-238页

核心收录：

学科分类：080705[工学-制冷及低温工程] 0808[工学-电气工程] 081705[工学-工业催化] 08[工学] 0817[工学-化学工程与技术] 0807[工学-动力工程及工程热物理] 

基　　金：Stanford University, SU University of Utah, UU 

主　　题：enzymatic fuel cell nitrogen-doped graphene reduced graphene oxide catalyst-free synthesis 

摘      要：Heteroatom-doping of pristine graphene is an effective route for tailoring new characteristics in terms of catalytic performance which opens up potentials for new applications in energy conversion and storage devices. Nitrogen-doped graphene （N-graphene）, for instance, has shown excellent performance in many electrochemical systems involving oxygen reduction reaction （ORR）, and more recently glucose oxidation. Owing to the excellent H2O2 sensitivity of N-graphene, the development of highly sensitive and fast-response enzymatic biosensors is made possible. However, a question that needs to be addressed is whether or not improving the anodic response to glucose detection leads to a higher overall performance of enzymatic biofuel cell （eBFC）. Thus, here we first synthesized N-graphene via a catalyst-free single-step thermal process, and made use of it as the biocatalyst support in a membraneless eBFC to identify its role in altering the performance characteristics. Our findings demonstrate that the electron accepting nitrogen sites in the graphene structure enhances the electron transfer efficiency between the mediator （redox polymer）, redox active site of the enzymes, and electrode surface. Moreover, the best performance in terms of power output and current density of eBFCs was observed when the bioanode was modified with highly doped N-graphene.