Journal of Power Sources, Vol.412, 496-504, 2019
Clean energy from human sweat using an enzymatic patch
The development of devices capable of generating energy through biofluids, such as sweat, is an effort to integrate flexible devices that can be powered and used on the skin. A patch-type completely enzymatic biofuel cell (p-EBFC) is developed using bilirubin oxidase- and lactate oxidase-based electrodes as biocathode and bioanode respectively, where both enzymes are immobilized on flexible Toray carbon paper-modified. The evaluation of the half-cells shows that the bioelectrodes had good catalytic activity towards the oxygen reduction and lactic acid oxidation reactions using natural human sweat. The wireless p-EBFC on the skin is capable to delivery an open circuit voltage of 0.55 +/- 0.03 V and a short circuit current of 140 +/- 4 mu A cm(-2). Also, the p-EBFC maintains its performance of 20 mu W cm(-2) and 30 mu A cm(-2) continuously for 30 min in a sweat delivery from the arm of a healthy volunteer during workouts. In addition, a wireless device is incorporated in order to monitor via a cell phone the energy produced in real time.