Graphene-coated carbon fiber cloth for flexible electrodes of glucose fuel cells

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 2016-02, Vol.55 (2S), p.2
• Main Authors: Hoshi, Kazuki, Muramatsu, Kazuo, Sumi, Hisato, Nishioka, Yasushiro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-4922; 1347-4065
• DOI: 10.7567/JJAP.55.02BE05

In this work, we fabricated flexible electrodes for a miniaturized, simple structured, and flexible glucose biofuel cell (BFC) using a graphene-coated carbon fiber cloth (GCFC). The areas of the anode and cathode electrodes were 3 × 10 mm2. The anode area was coated with the enzyme glucose oxidase, and the cathode area was coated with the enzyme bilirubin oxidase. No ion-exchange film was needed because glucose oxidase selectively oxidizes glucose and bilirubin oxidase selectively reduces oxygen. The power density of the BFC with GCFC electrodes in a phosphate buffer solution of 200 mM glucose solution at room temperature was 34.3 µW/cm2 at 0.43 V. The power density of a BFC using carbon fiber cloth (CFC) without graphene modification was 18.5 µW/cm2 at 0.13 V. The BFC with the GCFC electrode continued to function longer than 24 h with a power density higher than 5 µW/cm2. These effects were attributed to the much larger effective surface areas of the GCFC electrodes that maintain more enzymes than those of the CFC electrodes.