Gold nanoparticle-based biofuel cell using insect body fluid circulation

This paper reports a potentiality of a long term-durable self-refueling insect-mountable biofuel cell (iBFC) using trehalose, the main sugar of insect hemolymph. We developed a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based glucose oxidation system by sputtering Au onto an electrode. A maximum power density of 47.7 μW/cm
²
was obtained from 100 mM trehalose solution with added trehalase (Tre). Then, we observed the cockroach hemolymph (CHL) flow rate of 50 nL/s in a dorsal vessel. Furthermore, a self-circulation system of CHL powered by the body fluid circulation in insect body was developed for self-refueling of iBFC.