Bimetallic Fe15Pt85 nanoparticles as an effective anodic electrocatalyst for non-enzymatic glucose/oxygen biofuel cell

The present work describes an abiotic energy harvesting strategy from electrocatalytic glucose oxidation based on bimetallic FePt nanoparticles (NPs) with a unique onset oxidation potential of −0.63 V vs. Ag/AgCl and a maximum current density of 3.7 mA cm−2 at the physiological-like condition (pH 7.4). At first, the effect of Fe proportion and particle size on the electrocatalytic activity is investigated and it is found that the small size of Fe15Pt85 have the highest activity toward glucose oxidation. For the proposed abiotic system the cathode material is constructed from nitrogen doped graphene decorated with Pt NPs. The anode material is prepared via a simple one-step co-precipitation method and the cathode material was synthesized through a one-pot electrochemical synthesis route. The morphology, crystal structure and chemical composition of prepared nanostructure materials are characterized by various techniques. Based on the polarization profile and power density plot the designed glucose biofuel cell has an open-circuit potential of 0.64 V and provides a maximum power density of 95 μW cm−2 at a cell voltage of 0.44 V. Such abiotic glucose fuel cells have a great promise to be optimized, miniaturized to power bioimplantable devices without utilizing any complex system.

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