title: Reticulated vitreous carbon as a scaffold for enzymatic fuel cell designing.
abstract: Three - dimensional (3D) electrodes are successfully used to overcome the limitations of the low space - time yield and low normalized space velocity obtained in electrochemical processes with two - dimensional electrodes. In this study, we developed a three - dimensional reticulated vitreous carbon - gold (RVC-Au) sponge as a scaffold for enzymatic fuel cells (EFC). The structure of gold and the real electrode surface area can be controlled by the parameters of metal electrodeposition. In particular, a 3D RVC-Au sponge provides a large accessible surface area for immobilization of enzyme and electron mediators, moreover, effective mass diffusion can also take place through the uniform macro - porous scaffold. To efficiently bind the enzyme to the electrode and enhance electron transfer parameters the gold surface was modified with ultrasmall gold nanoparticles stabilized with glutathione. These quantum sized nanoparticles exhibit specific electronic properties and also expand the working surface of the electrode. Significantly, at the steady state of power generation, the EFC device with RVC-Au electrodes provided high volumetric power density of 1.18±0.14mWcm-3(41.3±3.8µWcm-2) calculated based on the volume of electrode material with OCV 0.741±0.021V. These new 3D RVC-Au electrodes showed great promise for improving the power generation of EFC devices.
authors.affiliation: College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematic and Natural Sciences (MISMaP), Stefana Banacha 2C, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kizling
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dzwonek
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Bartłomiej
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olszewski
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bącal
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Łukasz
authors.initials: Ł
authors.lastname: Tymecki
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Więckowska
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stolarczyk
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland. Electronic address: bilewicz@chem.uw.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bilewicz
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D004566:Electrodes; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D016062:Porosity; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon; D006046:Gold
keywords: Bioelectrocatalysis; Enzymatic fuel cell; Fructose dehydrogenase; Gold nanoparticles; Laccase; Reticulated vitreous carbon