Biofuel cell based on a complex between glucose oxidase and a plasma-polymerized film containing a redox site

This article presents a new design concept of a glucose oxidase (GOD) electrode as an anode for a biofuel cell based on plasma-polymerized thin film (PPF) of dimethylaminomethylferrocene (DMAMF), which plays a role as an electron transfer mediator between the active site of the enzyme and anodic electrode. The configuration of the anode is a multilayer mixture of DMAMF-PPF and GOD, in which a nano-thin DMAMF-PPF containing a redox mediator was plasma-deposited directly onto a GOD-physisorbed electrode. The optimized biofuel cell with bioan-ode, in a 20 mM phosphate buffer solution of pH 7.4 containing 10 mM glucose, exhibited a maximum power density of 2.7 μW/cm² at 20°C. The film deposition was performed using microfabrication-compatible organic plasma, which therefore suggests this fabrication process has significant potential for enabling high throughput production of micro biofuel cells.