Institut Européen des Membranes, UMR 5635, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier (ENSCM), CNRS, Université Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France.
Nanotechnology. 2013 Jun 21;24(24):245402. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/24/24/245402. Epub 2013 May 23.
New nanostructured electrodes, promising for the production of clean and renewable energy in biofuel cells, were developed with success. For this purpose, carbon nanofibers were produced by the electrospinning of polyacrylonitrile solution followed by convenient thermal treatments (stabilization followed by carbonization at 1000, 1200 and 1400° C), and carbon nanotubes were adsorbed on the surfaces of the fibers by a dipping method. The morphology of the developed electrodes was characterized by several techniques (SEM, Raman spectroscopy, electrical conductivity measurement). The electrochemical properties were evaluated through cyclic voltammetry, where the influence of the carbonization temperature of the fibers and the beneficial contribution of the carbon nanotubes were observed through the reversibility and size of the redox peaks of K3Fe(CN)6 versus Ag/AgCl. Subsequently, redox enzymes were immobilized on the electrodes and the electroreduction of oxygen to water was realized as a test of their efficiency as biocathodes. Due to the fibrous and porous structure of these new electrodes, and to the fact that carbon nanotubes may have the ability to promote electron transfer reactions of redox biomolecules, the new electrodes developed were capable of producing higher current densities than an electrode composed only of electrospun carbon fibers.
成功开发了新的纳米结构电极，有望在生物燃料电池中生产清洁可再生能源。为此，通过聚丙烯腈溶液的静电纺丝制备了碳纤维，然后进行了方便的热处理（稳定化，随后在 1000、1200 和 1400°C 下碳化），并通过浸渍法将碳纳米管吸附在纤维表面上。通过几种技术（SEM、拉曼光谱、电导率测量）对开发的电极的形态进行了表征。通过循环伏安法评估了电化学性能，观察到纤维碳化温度的影响以及碳纳米管的有益贡献，通过 K3Fe(CN)6 相对于 Ag/AgCl 的氧化还原峰的可逆性和大小来体现。随后，将氧化还原酶固定在电极上，并实现了氧气的电还原作为测试其作为生物阴极的效率。由于这些新电极具有纤维状和多孔结构，并且碳纳米管可能具有促进氧化还原生物分子的电子转移反应的能力，因此开发的新电极能够产生比仅由静电纺碳纤维组成的电极更高的电流密度。
