Photocatalytic Fuel Cells-Based Self-Powered Electrochemical Sensors for Pollutants Detection

Abstract

Self-powered sensors have drawn extensive attentions due to their obviation of the necessary external power sources during the sensing process. Photocatalytic fuel cells (PFC) can convert light energy and chemical energy into electricity, which provide the basis for the construction of self-powered photoelectrochemical sensors. Considering that PFCs could also generate fuel concentration-dependent output power, we have proposed light-induced self-powered sensors based on photocatalytic oxidation of glucose, which exhibited desirable accuracy and stability[1]. Further, we introduced antibody mimetics, namely, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), as recognition elements to either photocathodic or photoanodic PFC to improve the selectivity of self-powered sensors[2,3]. A membraneless, hydrogen peroxide-based PFC operated under visible light was proposed and applied in self-powered sensing of 3,3’,4,4’-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB77)[4].Although PFC provided an elegant approach for the construction of a light-induced self-powered sensing platform, the quantification of a target with a single output signal in an ordinary PFC-based sensor is easily affected by variation of the light intensity and other environmental factors. Herein we propose a ratiometric self-powered aptasensor for highly selective detection of 17β-estradiol (E2) based on a dual-channel PFC constructed with two photoanodes which could effectively avoid the fluctuation of the light intensity (Figure 1)[5]. We also constructed a PFC-based aptasensor using near-infrared (NIR) light as the irradiation source[6].Figure 1. A Schematic Illustration for Ratiometric Self-Powered Sensor Based on a Dual-Channel Photocatalytic Fuel Cell