Porous hollow tubular carbon materials based on zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 derived from ZnO nanorods as new enzyme immobilizing matrix for high-performance bioanode of glucose/O2 biofuel cells

•Porous hollow tubular carbon materials (PHTCs) were prepared from ZIF-8.•PHTCs have high surface area and extraordinary hierarchical porous structure.•The resulted enzyme electrode exhibited excellent catalytic capacity and stability.•For the assembled glucose/O2 BFC, the maximum power density is 310 μW cm− 2 at 0.23 V.

In this work, Au NPs decorated porous hollow tubular carbon materials (PHTCs@Au) by direct carbonization of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) derived from ZnO nanorods were prepared and used as enzyme immobilizing matrix to construct a bioanode for glucose/O2 biofuel cells (BFCs). Due to high surface area, good electric conductivity and extraordinary porous-hollow tubular structure of PHTCs@Au, the resulted enzyme electrode (PHTCs@Au/GOD (glucose oxidase)-GA (glutaraldehyde)/glassy carbon (GC) electrode) exhibited excellent catalytic capacity towards glucose oxidation and good stability. For the assembled glucose/O2 BFC with the PHTCs@Au/GOD-GA/GC electrode as the bioanode and a commercial Pt plate electrode as the cathode, the maximum power density of 310 μW cm− 2 can be obtained at 0.23 V, and the open circuit potential is 0.63 V. The attractive features of PHTCs also provide potential applications in energy storage and conversion devices such as supercapacitor and fuel cells, etc.

Graphic abstractA high-performance bioanode of glucose/O2 biofuel cells based on Au NPs decorated porous hollow tubular carbon materials (PHTCs@Au) by direct carbonization of zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-8 (ZIF-8) derived from ZnO nanorods were successfully constructed, and for the assembled glucose/O2 biofuel cell, the maximum power density of 310 μW cm− 2 can be obtained at 0.23 V.Download high-res image (157KB)Download full-size image