Henan Normal University has made new progress in the research of new anode catalysts for implantable biofuel cells

Recently, the team of Professor Yang Lin of Henan Normal University has made important progress in the research of new type of positive electrode catalysts for implantable biofuel cells. The research results are titled 'In Situ Engineering of Intracellular Hemoglobin for Implantable High Performance Biofuel Cells' and published online in Angewandte Chemie International Edition magazine, and by Nature Review Materials with the title 'BIOFUEL CELLS: Powered by bloodWith the development of high technology, biomedical devices such as pacemakers that can be implanted in the human body need suitable micro-power drives, so implantable biofuel cells have received widespread attention. However, the current challenge in this field is how to improve the power density, life and stability of the battery, which is closely related to the performance of the catalyst. As far as the cathode is concerned, the currently used catalysts are mainly biological enzymes, but their catalytic performance is far from meeting actual needs. In order to improve its performance, current research mainly focuses on the modification of electrodes, the immobilization of enzyme catalysts, and the improvement of electron transport media. The problems faced by these methods are: how to avoid catalyst deactivation, improve stability, and increase the biocompatibility of materials And the selectivity of the catalyst. Professor Yang Lin's team took a different approach and developed a high-performance cell electrocatalyst based on human red blood cells (RBC), which can be directly used for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reactions (ORR). Professor Yang Lin's team used RBC as the raw material, and through a gentle stepwise ion infiltration method, in situ synthesized engineered red blood cells (NERBC) containing ultra-small nano-hydroxyapatite (HAP) combined with hemoglobin in the cell. Compared with natural RBC, the biological properties of the generated NERBC have not changed. However, the effect of nanomaterials on proteins promotes the adsorption of oxygen by cells and the performance of electrocatalytic ORR. The test results show that NERBC has excellent electrocatalytic performance, with a peak potential of 0.47 V (vs. RHE), a maximum current density of 2.67 mA cm-2, and good stability. Moreover, it has good selectivity, and has no obvious catalytic activity on the anode fuel glucose within the voltage range studied, which lays the foundation for obtaining a membrane-free biofuel cell. When simulating blood components, using glucose and oxygen as the electrode reaction materials and NERBC as the positive electrode catalyst, the membrane-free biofuel cell is assembled into a membrane-free biofuel cell, showing excellent battery performance. Mechanism studies have shown that the excellent performance of NERBC is mainly due to the interaction of -OH and Hb in the intracellular HAP, which promotes the combination of Fe2+ and O2, thereby increasing its oxygen absorption capacity, and at the same time increasing the bond length of OO and weakening the binding energy. Conducive to be restored. The results of this research have opened up a new way for nanomaterials to regulate cell performance so as to be used in biomedical devices, and can also provide references for other fields. NERBC's excellent biocompatibility and direct catalytic ability to ORR make it a good candidate material for implantable biofuel cells. Professor Yang Lin’s team from Henan Normal University has long been engaged in the research of bionic nanostructured electrocatalysts and nanostructure regulation of cell performance, and has achieved a series of research results. It has been published in internationally renowned journals such as Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials and Advanced A series of papers have been published on Energy Materials. Doctoral student Chen Huifeng and young teacher Dr. Bai Zhengyu are the co-first authors of this article. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21571053 and 51872075) and other projects.