Nanomanufacturing processes for biofuel cells and sensors

Development of a high throughput carbon nanotube (CNT) functionalization method is one of the most critical challenges in the commercialization of CNT applications. In this thesis, we demonstrated a novel method using an intense pulsed light (IPL) for the fabrication of CNT-platinum (Pt) hybrid materials. The IPL assisted sputter process improved Pt utilization by roughening the catalyst surface on CNT. The sudden irradiation of the intense light causes surface-energy-driven diffusion Pt atoms on CNT and forms the Pt islands. The whole process was done under the dry and ambient condition. Cyclic voltammetry showed dramatically improved glucose oxidation at the modified Pt-CNT electrode compared to the as sputtered Pt-CNT electrode. The modified Pt-CNT electrode based glucose fuel cell showed 4.3 times improved power density than the as sputtered Pt-CNT electrodes. The photothermal process was also applied in fabricating platinum based alloy such as platinum-gold alloy nanoparticles on CNT in extreamly short time (2 ms).;In addition to the inorganic catalyst functionalization on CNT, enzymes such as glucose oxidase were also used for glucose oxidation. In this thesis, glucose oxidases were immobilized covalently on CNT mat. CNT mat is a sheet of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Due to its mechanical strength, porosity, and electric conductivity it could serve as electrode as well as enzyme bed.;Electrophoresis assisted self-assembly was also studied. It is expected that the enzyme immobilized nanoparticles can be assembled into bio-sensors with high-throughput assembly technology introduced in this thesis.