A Binder-less Glucose Fuel Cell with Improved Chemical Stability Intended as Power Supply for Medical Implants

Abstract

We present an improved abiotically catalyzed glucose fuel cell, intended as tissue implantable power supply for medical implants. A novelty is the application of binder-less platinum electrodes for both, anode and cathode. This overcomes the limited chemical stability of glucose fuel cells fabricated from activated carbon particles dispersed in a hydrogel matrix. For the first time the diffusion resistance to be expected from tissue capsule formation has been taken into account during performance characterization under physiological concentrations of glucose and oxygen. Despite the resulting limited oxygen supply, the binder-less fuel cells exhibit a power density of (2.3 ± 0.2) µW cm−2, which is comparable to our previous prototypes. We show that this is due to the increased performance of the novel electrodes.Keywordsglucosefuel cellimplantableenergy harvestingplatinum