Conclusions and Outlooks
135
dilution/concentration such as saliva and urine. For this purpose, development of
two-electrode systems providing reliable and reproducible signals is required.
In biofuel cell application, gas-diffusion bioelectrodes is one of the most important
contributions in our group, although the technique is still developing for practical
purpose. Although biofuel cell technology might be considered as a fundamental
research field, recent technical breakthroughs may make it possible to use biofuel
cells on a commercially basis. Some important proposals of the practical utilization
of biofuel cells would drastically improve the performance in future.
As the reverse reaction of biofuel cells, bioelectrocatalytic synthesis will
become increasingly important in future. Thanks to H 2 ase, FoDH, and FNR with
bidirectional catalytic activity, three redox couples: 2H
+ /H 2 , CO 2 /HCOO
− , and
NAD(P)
+ /NAD(P)H, are reversibly interconverted electrochemically in bioelectrocatalytic system. Electrochemical 4-electron reduction of O 2 and photoelectrochemical water splitting have been also realized by using MCO and PSII, respectively.
Bioelectrochemical combination of these principal reactions in nature will open a new
world of extended hydrogen economy and of varieties of biosensing technologies.
A serious problem in bioelectrocatalytic system is fragile properties of redox
enzymes. Many researchers are tackling a great challenge in understanding of the
enzyme stability and increasing of the lifetime of redox enzymes. One of alternatives
may over expression and/or cell-surface expression of target enzyme(s) in microbes
and utilization of the microbes as electrocatalysts (especially as bags of enzyme(s)).
We hope further development in understanding and application of bioelectrocatalytic systems. All these efforts are also valuable in establishing bioelectrochemistry
as a novel research tool for redox enzymes.
135
dilution/concentration such as saliva and urine. For this purpose, development of
two-electrode systems providing reliable and reproducible signals is required.
In biofuel cell application, gas-diffusion bioelectrodes is one of the most important
contributions in our group, although the technique is still developing for practical
purpose. Although biofuel cell technology might be considered as a fundamental
research field, recent technical breakthroughs may make it possible to use biofuel
cells on a commercially basis. Some important proposals of the practical utilization
of biofuel cells would drastically improve the performance in future.
As the reverse reaction of biofuel cells, bioelectrocatalytic synthesis will
become increasingly important in future. Thanks to H 2 ase, FoDH, and FNR with
bidirectional catalytic activity, three redox couples: 2H
+ /H 2 , CO 2 /HCOO
− , and
NAD(P)
+ /NAD(P)H, are reversibly interconverted electrochemically in bioelectrocatalytic system. Electrochemical 4-electron reduction of O 2 and photoelectrochemical water splitting have been also realized by using MCO and PSII, respectively.
Bioelectrochemical combination of these principal reactions in nature will open a new
world of extended hydrogen economy and of varieties of biosensing technologies.
A serious problem in bioelectrocatalytic system is fragile properties of redox
enzymes. Many researchers are tackling a great challenge in understanding of the
enzyme stability and increasing of the lifetime of redox enzymes. One of alternatives
may over expression and/or cell-surface expression of target enzyme(s) in microbes
and utilization of the microbes as electrocatalysts (especially as bags of enzyme(s)).
We hope further development in understanding and application of bioelectrocatalytic systems. All these efforts are also valuable in establishing bioelectrochemistry
as a novel research tool for redox enzymes.
Précédent