Research frontiers in energy-related materials and applications for 2020-2030
Abstract: This article delineates the state of the art for several materials used in the harvest, conversion, and storage of energy, and analyzes the challenges to be overcome in the decade ahead for them to reach the market and benefit society. The materials covered have had a special interest in recent years and include perovskites, materials for batteries and supercapacitors, graphene, and materials for hydrogen production and storage. Looking at the common challenges for these different systems, scientists in basic research should carefully consider commercial requirements when designing new materials. These include cost and ease of synthesis, abundance of precursors, recyclability of s…
Enzyme-modified electrodes for biosensors and biofuel cells
In biosensors and biofuel cells, it is often desirable to accelerate the electron transfer rate between the enzyme and electrode surface to improve the performance of the devices (sensitivity or power output). To this end, in this review, we focus on three important strategies available to improve the performance of enzyme-modified electrodes: the use of protein engineering, designer polymers, and the introduction of nanomaterials. Engineering the protein or proteins that constitute the biocatalytic elements allow tuning their stability, activity, and specificity. It can also allow changing the enzyme immobilization efficiency (adsorption vs. covalent immobilization, for example). If direct…