Rational design of electroactive redox enzyme nanocapsules for high-performance biosensors and enzymatic biofuel cell

Abstract The potential application of biodevices based on enzymatic bioelectrocatalysis are limited by poor stability and electrochemical performance. To solve the limitation, modifying enzyme with functional polymer to tailor enzyme function is highly desirable. Herein, glucose oxidase (GOx) was chosen as a model enzyme, and according to the chemical structure of GOx cofactor (flavin adenine dinucleotide, FAD), we customize a biomimetic cofactor containing vinyl group (SFAD) for GOx, and prepared an GOx nanocapsule via in-situ polymerization. The characterization of particle size distribution, TEM, fluorescence and electrochemical performance indicated the successful formation of electroactive GOx nanocapsule with SFAD-containing polymeric network (n (GOx-SFAD-PAM)). The network can act as an electronic “highway” to link the active site with electrode, with capability to accelerate electron transfer as well as enhanced GOx stability. Further investigation of bioelectrocatalysis shows that n (GOx-SFAD-PAM)-based biosensor has low detection potential (-0.4 vs. Ag/AgCl), high sensitivity (64.97 μAmM−1cm−2), good anti-interference performance, quick response (3⁓5s) and excellent stability, and that n (GOx-SFAD-PAM)-based enzymatic biofuel cell (EBFC) has the high maximum power density (1011.21 μWcm−2), which is a 386-fold increase over that of native GOx-based EBFC (2.62 μWcm−2). This study suggests that novel enzyme nanocapsule with electroactive polymeric shell might provide a prospective solution for the performance improvement of enzymatic bioelectrocatalysis-based biodevices.