Paper based biofuel cells: Incorporating enzymatic cascades for ethanol and methanol oxidation

Abstract

Here we developed a flow-based system resulting in improved performance of enzyme cascade-based biofuel cells. A paper-based biofuel cell with passive laminar flow was build to show the impact of flow on the performance of two different enzyme cascades – methanol and ethanol cascade. Both cascades demonstrated enhanced electrochemical output as a consequence of the decreased diffusion path of reaction intermediates identifying the intermediates diffusion in between enzymatic active sites as the rate limiting step in cascade operating systems.