Active Layer of an Oxygen Electrode Based on Nanocomposite Disperse Carbon Carrier + Laccase Material

Effect of the carbon material dispersivity on the efficiency of oxygen electroreduction by laccase immobilized on finely divided colloidal graphite (FCG) and carbon black AD-100 is studied. A highly active composite material based on FCG with laccase immobilized on it is proposed and investigated. This creates optimum conditions for direct bioelectrocatalysis by enzyme molecules. The specific oxygen reduction current calculated per enzyme molecule for nanocomposite FCG + laccase is five times that on an AD-100-based composite. Increasing the active-layer thickness, which is of importance for creating a gas-diffusion oxygen electrode, reduces specific activity of composite and only the activity of ultrathin layers is thickness-independent. This is explained by percolation restrictions on the electron transport, which reduce the number of catalytically active centers in the electrode's active layer that take part in reaction. The FCG particles are presumed to form agglomerates in the active layer. The size of the agglomerates is determined on the basis of computer-aided modeling of percolation processes and experimental data on the dependence of the specific capacitance of the active mass on the active-layer thickness. Hypotheses on the origin of percolation phenomena are put forth. One such hypothesis is that agglomerates of carbon particles are fractal clusters.