A membraneless biofuel cell powered by ethanol and alcoholic beverage

In this study, we reported on the construction of a stable single-chamber ethanol/O2 biofuel cell harvesting energy from the ethanol and alcoholic beverage. We prepared a composite film which consisted of partially sulfonated (3-mercaptopropyl)-trimethoxysilane sol–gel (PSSG) and chitosan (CHI). The combination of ion-exchange capacity sol–gel and biopolymer chitosan not only provided the attached sites for mediator MDB and AuNPs to facilitate the electron transfer along the substrate reaction, but also gave the suitable microenvironment to retain the enzyme activity in long term. The ethanol bioanode was constructed with the film coimmobilized dehydrogenase (ADH), Meldola's blue (MDB) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The MDB/AuNPs/PSSG-CHI-ADH composite modified electrode showed prominent electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of ethanol. The oxygen biocathode consisted of laccase and AuNPs immobilized on the PSSG–CHI composite membrane. The AuNPs/PSSG–CHI-laccase modified electrode catalyzed four-electron reduction of O2 to water, without any mediator. The assembled single-chamber biofuel cell exhibited good stability and power output towards ethanol. The open-circuit voltage of this biofuel cell was 860 mV. The maximum power density of the biofuel cell was 1.56 mW cm−2 at 550 mV. Most interestingly, this biofuel cell showed the similar performance when the alcoholic beverage acted as the fuel. When this biofuel cell ran with wine as the fuel, the maximum power output density was 3.21 mA cm−2 and the maximum power density was 1.78 mW cm−2 at 680 mV of the cell voltage. Our system exhibited stable and high power output in the multi-component substrate condition. This cell has great potential for the development and practical application of bioethanol fuel cell.