Prolongation of electrode lifetime in biofuel cells by periodic enzyme renewal

12.09.2012

Rubenwolf S, Sané S, Hussein L, Kestel J, von Stetten F, Urban G, Krueger M, Zengerle R, Kerzenmacher S.

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2012;96(3):841-9

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol.        online article

Enzymatically catalyzed biofuel cells show unique specificity and promise high power densities, but suffer from a limited lifetime due to enzyme deactivation. In the present work, we demonstrate a novel concept to extend the lifetime of a laccase-catalyzed oxygen reduction cathode in which we decouple the electrode lifetime from the limited enzyme lifetime by a regular resupply of fresh enzymes.