(548f) Nanobioelectrocatalysis for Efficient Deep Oxidation

Living cells oxidize a wide variety of fuels by employing enzymes as catalysts for energy conversion. It has been shown that many of these cellular metabolic enzymes exist in supercomplexes within living organisms. This nanoscale organization, called a metabolon, results in channeling of substrates between enzymes. Biofuel cell researchers have studied multi-enzyme systems, but they have not investigated the need for proximal three-dimension organization in efficient energy conversion. This work outlines the use of metabolons as catalysts These metabolons are obtained through in situ cross-linking of protein within the mitochondria of Saccharomyces cervisea. This cross-linking maintains the integrity of the sequential complexation that exists naturally in the intact biological system. This complexation improves efficiency thus increasing the current and power density of pyruvate/air enzymatic biofuel cells.