title: Nanostructured material-based biofuel cells: recent advances and future prospects.
abstract: During the past decade, biofuel cells (BFCs) have emerged as an emerging technology on account of their ability to directly generate electricity from biologically renewable catalysts and fuels. Due to the boost in nanotechnology, significant advances have been accomplished in BFCs. Although it is still challenging to promote the performance of BFCs, adopting nanostructured materials for BFC construction has been extensively proposed as an effective and promising strategy to achieve high energy production. In this review, we presented the major novel nanostructured materials applied for BFCs and highlighted the breakthroughs in this field. Based on different natures of the bio-catalysts and electron transfer process at the bio-electrode surfaces, the fundamentals of BFC systems, including enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) and microbial fuel cells (MFCs), have been elucidated. In particular, the principle of electrode materials design has been detailed in terms of enhancing electrical communications between biological catalysts and electrodes. Furthermore, we have provided the applications of BFCs and potential challenges of this technology.
authors.affiliation: State key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Collaborative Innovation of Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. jrzhang@nju.edu.cn jjzhu@nju.edu.cn and Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Cui-E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Collaborative Innovation of Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. jrzhang@nju.edu.cn jjzhu@nju.edu.cn and College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China.
authors.forename: Panpan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gai
authors.affiliation: State key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Collaborative Innovation of Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. jrzhang@nju.edu.cn jjzhu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Rongbin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Collaborative Innovation of Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. jrzhang@nju.edu.cn jjzhu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Collaborative Innovation of Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. jrzhang@nju.edu.cn jjzhu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jianrong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Collaborative Innovation of Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. jrzhang@nju.edu.cn jjzhu@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jun-Jie
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8201-1285
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhu