Advancements in Enzymatic Biofuel Cells for Wearable Electrochemical Biosensors: Powering Point-of-Care Health Monitoring

Abstract

Enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) are a promising source of energy that utilize enzymes as biocatalysts to convert chemical energy into electrical energy, from biofuels such as glucose, lactate or ethanol. Biofuel cells (BFCs) can provide sufficient power for wearable and implantable bioelectronic enabling continuous operation under mild conditions. Although significant contributions have been made to advancing these enzymatic biofuel cells, major challenges remain to address associated problems, such as low power performance, short lifespan, and poor biocompatibility. To overcome these limitations in the field of bioenergy harvesting, this review highlights recent advances in novel electrode designs and the integration of EBFCs with other energy-harvesting technologies such as TENGs (triboelectric nanogenerators), PENGs (piezoelectric nanogenerators) and TEGs (thermoelectric generators). The focus lies on advanced enzyme immobilization strategies and the hybrid integration of mechanical and thermal energy-harvesting systems within EBFCs to improve power density and operational stability for biomedical device applications. Finally, this review outlines prospects for lab-on-a-chip integration and hybrid EBFC–supercapacitor system interfaces.