As perhaps the most commonly utilized fuel for enzymatic fuel cells (EFCs), glucose oxidation is largely under-exploited. Theoretically, the oxidation of glucose and its downstream metabolites is able to deliver a maximum of 24e^- to a bioanode, however the vast majority of EFCs reported to date only perform a single 2e^- oxidation of glucose.

Commercially available glucose oxidase (GOx) from Aspergillus sp. oxidizes the anomeric (C1) carbon of glucose. Recently, mediated bioelectrocatalysis of pyranose dehydrogenase from Agaricus meleagris (AmPDH) via an osmium redox hydrogel has been demonstrated, whereby AmPDH is reported to be able to oxidize glucose and other saccharides at combinations of their respective C1/C2/C3 positions.¹

Another attractive property of an EFC is the ability to utilize a single biocatalyst to oxidize a range of fuels. We recently reported the use of an engineered commercially-available glucose oxidase with broader substrate specificity at an electrode surface that resulted in an EFC configuration that was able to oxidize multiple (poly)saccharides, including lactose from dairy milk and starch.²

This study reports the ability of a ferrocene redox hydrogel to mediate bioelectrocatalytic saccharide oxidation by AmPDH. Further, AmPDH and broad substrate specificity glucose oxidase were combined to yield an EFC that was able to operate on multiple (poly)saccharides while theoretically increasing the extent of oxidation of each substrate, resulting in a more-versatile EFC with greater efficiency.

References

1.              M. E. Yakovleva, C. Gonaus, K. Schropp, P. Oconghaile, D. Leech, C. K. Peterbauer and L. Gorton, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 9074-9081.

2.              R. D. Milton, F. Wu, K. Lim, S. Abdellaoui, D. P. Hickey and S. D. Minteer, ACS Catal., 2015, 5, 7218-7225.