A novel anode of gold nanoparticle coated Au nanorod arrays for nonenzymatic glucose fuel cells

Abstract

In this study, we propose a novel nonenzymatic glucose fuel cell (GFC) with an anode of gold nanoparticle coated Au nanorod arrays (AuNPs@AuNRA). The anode is fabricated through anodic aluminum oxide production, photolithographic patterning, core nickel nanorods electroforming, immersing gold, and gold nanoparticle electrodeposition. A double-chamber GFC, consisting of the proposed anode, a graphene-modified glassy carbon cathode, and a Nafion proton-exchange membrane separating the anode and cathode, is constructed. Experimental results reveal that the proposed GFC can produce a maximum power density of 822 μW/cm2, a Voc of 0.8 V, and an Isc density of 5.15 mA/cm2 at a glucose concentration of 0.2 M. The energy conversion efficiency of the proposed nonenzymatic GFC reaches 51.6%, which can be attributed to the high catalyzation area of the AuNPs@AuNRA anode. Thus, the proposed nonenzymatic GFC exhibit promising feasibility in applications.