Silver nanoparticles anchored on zinc oxide synthesized via green route as scaffold for enzymatic biofuel cell application

Abstract

The present work is based on developing more efficient bioanode nanocomposite materials for enzymatic biofuel cell (EBFCs) applications. The selection of useful electrode materials (EMs) is depended on their long-term stability, high current density, and low open-circuit voltage (OCV). Continuous efforts are being applied by the research communities for developing advanced efficient EMs. In the past few decades, nanomaterials and their composite have become promising materials that have been used as effective EMs in supercapacitors, solar cells (SCs) and BFCs applications. Herein, ternary nanocomposite, composed of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) decorated on zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and graphene oxide sheets (GO), based bioanode was designed by employing Ferritin (Frt) and glucose oxidase (GOx) enzymes on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The formation of Ag@ZnO-NPs/GO nanocomposite was confirmed using analytical techniques such as FTIR and XRD. The structural surface morphology and in-depth investigation of Ag@ZnO-NPs/GO nanocomposite were performed using SEM and TEM. Besides these, the electrochemical behavior of as-synthesized Ag@ZnO-NPs/GO nanocomposite and the designed bioanode Ag@ZnO-NPs/GO/Frt/GOx were examined using cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The resulting bioanode showed good catalytic activity toward glucose oxidation and splendid stability. In the presence of glucose (optimum concentration = 30 mM), the maximum current density was 7.7 mA cm−2, comparable to the other bioanode EMs. The results of this work reflected the appropriateness of Ag@ZnO-NPs/GO/Frt/GOx bioanode materials as assured EMs for the generation of EBFCs.