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Electrochemical Reaction and Direct Energy Conversion of Fucose By Functional Nanomaterial-Modified Electrodes

Tuesday, 31 May 2016: 15:40
Indigo Ballroom E (Hilton San Diego Bayfront)
H. T. VU (Osaka University), H. Yoshikawa (Osaka University, JST, CREST, Osaka University), H. Q. Le, H. Toake, and E. Tamiya (Osaka University)
Biomass extracted from brown macro-algae promises as a future renewable energy because of non-toxicity, natural availability, and greenhouse gas free and do not interfere with the human food chain. Here, we first show the extraction of energy from brown macro-algae by via direct oxidation of fucose by using the novel materials combination of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), titania (TiO2) and functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNTs). The catalytic activity for fucose oxidation of composites materials was tested by both of cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry methods. In all experiments, TiO2/Au/CNT nanocomposites exhibited better electrochemical performance than TiO2/CNT composites; AuNPs/CNT composite or CNTs only. Enhanced current response can be attributed to the synergic effect of nano-TiO2, nano-Au and f-MWCNTs. Further more, the new materials showed improvement on direct fucose fuel cell performance. The results from this research open possibility for practical application of our fuel cell by using the cheap catalytic material of TiO2 with high efficiency on conversion of energy from brown macroalgae biomass.