Recent advances in enzymatic biofuel cells enabled by innovative materials and techniques

Enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) have garnered significant research interest due to their capacity to power implantable bioelectronics, portable devices, and biosensors by utilizing biomass as fuel. To depict the current progress of EBFC and address the challenges it faces, this review traces back the evolution of EBFC and focuses on contemporary advances.

Abstract:

The past few decades have seen increasingly rapid advances in the field of sustainable energy technologies. As a new bio- and eco-friendly energy source, enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) have garnered significant research interest due to their capacity to power implantable bioelectronics, portable devices, and biosensors by utilizing biomass as fuel under mild circumstances. Nonetheless, numerous obstacles impeded the commercialization of EBFCs, including their relatively modest power output and poor long-term stability of enzymes. To depict the current progress of EBFC and address the challenges it faces, this review traces back the evolution of EBFC and focuses on contemporary advances such as newly emerged multi or single enzyme systems, various porous framework-enzyme composites techniques, and innovative applications. Besides emphasizing current achievements in this field, from our perspective part we also introduced novel electrode and cell design for highly effective EBFC fabrication. We believe this review will assist readers in comprehending the basic research and applications of EBFCs as well as potentially spark interdisciplinary collaboration for addressing the pressing issues in this field.

Author list:

Wengang Huang, Muhammad Yazid Bin Zulkifli, Milton Chai, Rijia Lin, Jingjing Wang, Yuelei Chen, Vicki Chen, Jingwei Hou*

How to cite:

W. Huang, M. Y. B. Zulkifli, M. Chai, R. Lin, J. Wang, Y. Chen, V. Chen, J. Hou, Exploration 2023, 3, 20220145.
https://doi.org/10.1002/EXP.20220145