Multiscale Carbon Materials as Supports for Bioelectrodes

Abstract

A quantitative study of transport and reaction in multiscale porous biocatalytic electrodes is presented, using glucose oxidation catalyzed by glucose oxidase as a model system. Kinetic parameters determined from planar electrodes are applied to porous electrodes to determine utilization and transport properties. In a multiscale porous electrode containing multi-wall carbon nanotubes supported on carbon fibers, surface area increases 100-fold over bare fibers, but catalyst utilization of about 10% is observed. Hence, improving the dispersion of active material over the entire nanoscale area is expected to further improve electrode performance.