Microfluidic Biosensors and Biofuel Cells Integrated with Low-dimensional Carbon Nanomaterials

This thesis presents development of the next generation carbon-based biofuel cells, and biosensors that are the two important members of the large class of bio-microsystems. In our efforts, we took advantage of exotic properties of graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and combined them with emerging microfluidic tools to fabricate, analyze, and inform theories that explain the fundamental principles underlying our experimental observations. More specifically, we demonstrated studies on (i) converting enzymatic fuel cells (EFCs) into novel enzymatic biobatteries, (ii) the use of emerging graphene derivatives in enhancing the performance metrics of EFCs, and the next-generation graphene-based phononic sensors for (iii) remote flow rate measurements within microfluidics devices, and (iv) remote detection of glucose with/without the aid of enzymes.