Disposable electronic sensors like pregnancy or ovulation tests are being increasingly developed. However, most of them use toxic alkaline or lithium batteries for the power supply which, despite manufacturers’ indications, are rarely recycled.

To face these problems, our team has developed nontoxic enzymatic glucose biofuel cells capable of producing sufficient energy to run these disposable devices.

These biofuel cells transform chemical energy from the glucose into electrical energy by oxidation-reduction reactions catalyzed by biomolecules (enzymes).

Unlike conventional fuel cells which use noble metal catalysts, these biocatalysts have the advantage, in addition to their non-toxicity and their biodegradability, of providing energy conversion in complex environments and under mild conditions (room temperature and neutral pH).