Synthesis and evaluation of Pt/rGO as the anode electrode in abiotic glucose fuel cell: Near to the human body physiological condition

Abstract In this research, abiotic catalyst 40 wt% Pt/rGO is successfully synthesized via chemical reduction method with an average particle size of 3 nm (characterized by TEM and XRD), and activity of it as anode catalyst for glucose oxidation is evaluated in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH = 7.4) in the presence of 5 mM glucose (near-human body physiological concentrations). The fuel cell testing is carried out in a two-chamber abiotic glucose fuel cell (AGFC) utilizing Pt/rGO as the anode catalyst and PBS/glucose as the feed. Furthermore, effect of circulated fuel (based on human arm's vein blood flow rate, 0.33 mLs−1) is also investigated for implantable purposes and is compared to stationary fuel; 10% increase in the AGFC voltage in contrast to 23% cell voltage drop respectively under 0.01 mAcm−2 current density over 15 h. Results indicate that Pt/rGO is a promising catalyst for AGFCs to power implantable devices.