Carbon Nanotube PtSn Nanoparticles for Enhanced Complete Biocatalytic Oxidation of Ethylene Glycol in Biofuel Cells

Jesimiel Glaycon Rodrigues Antonio; Jefferson Honorio Franco; Paula Z Almeida; Thiago S Almeida; Maria de Lourdes Teixeira de Morais Polizeli; Shelley D Minteer; Adalgisa Rodrigues de Andrade

doi:10.1021/acsmaterialsau.1c00029

Carbon Nanotube PtSn Nanoparticles for Enhanced Complete Biocatalytic Oxidation of Ethylene Glycol in Biofuel Cells

ACS Mater Au. 2021 Oct 18;2(2):94-102. doi: 10.1021/acsmaterialsau.1c00029. eCollection 2022 Mar 9.

Authors

Jesimiel Glaycon Rodrigues Antonio¹, Jefferson Honorio Franco¹, Paula Z Almeida², Thiago S Almeida^{1

3}, Maria de Lourdes Teixeira de Morais Polizeli², Shelley D Minteer⁴, Adalgisa Rodrigues de Andrade¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Philosophy Sciences and Letters at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
² Department of Biology, Faculty of Philosophy Sciences and Letters at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
³ Department of Chemistry, Campus Universitário de Iturama, Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, 38280-000, Iturama, MG, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, 315 S 1400 E Rm 2020, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, United States.

Abstract

We report a hybrid catalytic system containing metallic PtSn nanoparticles deposited on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs), prepared by the microwave-assisted method, coupled to the enzyme oxalate oxidase (OxOx) for complete ethylene glycol (EG) electrooxidation. Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs, without OxOx, showed good electrochemical activity toward EG oxidation and all the byproducts. Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs cleaved the glyoxilic acid C-C bond, producing CO₂ and formic acid, which was further oxidized at the electrode. Concerning EG oxidation, the catalytic activity of the hybrid system (Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs+OxOx) was twice the catalytic activity of Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs. Long-term electrolysis revealed that Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs+OxOx was much more active for EG oxidation than Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs: the charge increased by 65%. The chromatographic results proved that Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs+OxOx collected all of the 10 electrons per molecule of the fuel and was able to catalyze EG oxidation to CO₂ due to the associative oxidation between the metallic nanoparticles and the enzymatic pathway. Overall, Pt₆₅Sn₃₅/MWCNTs+OxOx proved to be a promising system to enhance the development of enzymatic biofuel cells for further application in the bioelectrochemistry field.