Nanoengineering of Graphene-Supported Functional Composites for Performance-Enhanced Enzymatic Biofuel Cells

Abstract Biofuel cells are a kind of bioenergy devices, which hold wide interests in the areas of bioelectronics, biomedicine, and applied bioelectrochemistry, among others. The development and applications of biofuel cells have encountered some critical challenges mainly arising from their low power capacity and limited cycling stability. To develop new-generation biofuel cells that could offer enhanced performances, for example, through creating biocompatible microenvironments for trapping biomolecules and enhancement of electron-transfer kinetics, intensive efforts have recently devoted to new design, structural engineering, and smart architecture of nanostructured electrode materials. This chapter offers an up-to-date overview of relevant advances in the research and development of enzymatic biofuel cells using graphene-supported functional composites as electrode materials, with the emphasis on the nanoscale engineering of electrode materials for enhancing the overall performance. The chapter focuses on several types of composite material systems, including metallic nanoparticle-decorated graphene materials, polymer-graphene and metal hydroxide-graphene composites. We start with a brief introduction to enzymatic biofuel cells and graphene as a unique two-dimensional material, followed by elucidating the working principles of an enzymatic biofuel cell. We then give some examples about six types of electrode materials that have been tested for enzyme-based biofuel cells and summarize the main immobilization methods of enzymes onto or into graphene-supported materials. We finally discuss remained challenges and ongoing research efforts.