Deglycoyslation of glucose oxidase and its application within high power enzymatic fuel cells

To compensate for the increase of carbon dioxide level and the energy exhaust, an enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) has been investigated by researchers. In the paper, a chemical oxidative deglycosylation of an enzyme was investigated to furture improve EFCs. By deglycosylating an enzyme, the distance between the elecrtode surface of a glassy carbon anode and the enzyme active site is hypothesized to be reduced. This reduced distance would improve the enzyme/substrate binding and the rates of electron transfer which result in a higher power EFC. However, the results were not supportive of this hypothesis. The control showed better electrochemical performances and the substrate specific activities at 100mM in a buffer at pH 6.5 than the deglycosylated enzyme. For future projects, efficient and more selective deglycosylation methods should be investigated.