An Abiotically Catalyzed Glucose Fuel Cell Based on Decorated Buckypaper

Highly efficient supported catalyst layers based on metallic/bimetallic (Pt, Au-Pt) nanoparticles decorated-single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) on Buckypaper (BP) for direct glucose fuel cell are presented here. The electrodes have been tested in mixed-reactant biofuel cell. High glucose-tolerance, stability and catalytic activity are observed for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) that resulted in a high limiting current density for Pt-NPs/BP-based electrode in a phosphate buffer solution (0.2 M PBS, pH 7.4) containing 10 mM glucose, in comparison to AuPt/BP-based electrode which is used as anode. The ability to realize the potential of BP-based biofuel cell has been demonstrated for this kind of electrodes. This novel abiotic catalytic system approaches a power density of 80 μA cm, indicating that BP as a promising support material for biofuel cell electrodes to power small electronic medical devices.