Environmental Engineering Reference
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Applications feasible in the near term will most likely involve transcutaneous access to
tissue-based glucose and reliance on O
2
from tissue or ambient air, involving little or
no surgical intervention. These are likely to be disposable, low power devices with
lifetimes of one week or less.
Figure 17.19 A membraneless ethanol/O
2
enzyme fuel cell. Alcohol dehydrogenase and
aldehyde dehydrogenase catalyze a stepwise oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde and then to
acetate, passing electrons to the anode via the mediator NAD
þ
/NADH. At the carbon cathode,
electrons are passed via the [Ru(2,2
0
-bipyridyl)
3
]
3
þ
/2
þ
and biliverdin/bilirubin couples to bili-
rubin oxidase, which catalyzes O
2
reduction to H
2
O. (a) Schematic representation of the reactions
occurring. (b) Power/current response for the cell operating in buffered solution at pH 7.15, con-
taining 1 mM ethanol and 1 mM NAD
þ
. Panel (b) reprinted from Topcagic and Minteer [2006].
Copyright Elsevier, 2006.
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