Disposable Fluidic Devices of Bionanochannels for Enzymatic Monitoring and Energy Harvesting

Nature produces a plethora of nanochannels to carry out highly complex biological tasks in a sophisticated manner. There have been several studies to understand the characteristics of these channels; however, efforts to apply them for technological advancements are still scarce. Here, we have demonstrated that the fluidic channels of biomaterials can be harvested as nanofluidic devices to produce energy from enzymatic chemical reactions. The bionanochannel-based nanofluidic devices exhibit various nanofluidic phenomena like surface-charged-governed ionic conductivity and development of the transmembrane potential. The mobility of ions in the hydrated bionanochannels are found to be higher than that of bulk water. The cation-selective nature of the biochannels was also exploited to harvest a continuous supply of power up to 74 mW m–2 for 3 h from the enzymatic decomposition of urea. The transmembrane potential across the biochannels was also explored for label-free electrical monitoring of the enzymatic reaction inside the biological medium. Electrical monitoring on the kinetics of urease at different reaction temperatures suggested that inside biological medium the reaction goes through a pathway of lower activation energy (31.1 kJ) than that in the bulk environment (34.1 kJ). Enzyme urease was found to be more sustainable in bionanochannels than in glass vials