Photoelectrochemical Oxidation of Glucose on Tungsten Trioxide Electrode for Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensing and Fuel Cell Applications

Abstract

We report the photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxidation of glucose at tungsten trioxide nanoplate (WO3NP) electrode for glucose sensing application and photo fuel cell (PFC) application. The WO3-based PEC sensor shows high sensitivity of 68.15 μA cm−2 mM−1 in glucose detection for the concentrations in the range of 0.1∼0.5 mM and displays good selectivity toward the interferents of ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA). Moreover, electricity can be extracted from photo-oxidizing of glucose on WO3NP electrode in a PFC device and the output strongly depends on the concentration of glucose fuel. In addition, the power performance of PFC obtained under irradiation shows 60-fold higher than that of achieved in the dark, indicating that photo-oxidation of glucose on the WO3NP anode is the essence for this fuel cell electricity generation. The work expands the application of WO3 in the field of glucose analysis and provides a possible way to detect glucose without inputting external power.