The advantages of the use of glucose as a fuel in low-temperature fuel cells are its abundance, easy availability, low cost, non-toxicity and no storage problems. Renewable biomass resources, including starch and cellulose, can be readily converted to the glucose molecule with little energy cost. This overview is focused on abiotic external glucose fuel cells (GFCs), presenting an appreciable performance (maximum power density ≥ 0.1 mW cm⁻²). Various types of traditional acid and alkaline fuel cells, using solid catalysts, have been fueled with glucose. A comparison of traditional fuel cells fueled with low molecular weight compounds and glucose showed that GFCs have a considerably lower performance, due to partial glucose oxidation, with formation of gluconic acid, by releasing only two electrons, so there is still much room for their improvement. A new type of fuel cells, using liquid catalysts instead of solid catalysts, have recently aroused great interest. When used as a fuel in liquid catalyst fuel cells (LCFCs), glucose provides better cell performance than more simple fuels. In LCFCs glucose can be more deeply oxidized, up to CO₂. The hydroxyl/carbon number of polyhydric alcohols seems to be the key factor that determines the LCFC performance, indicating that higher polyhydric compounds, such as glucose, are more suitable fuels for LCFCs than simple alcohols.

中文翻译：

---

外置非生物葡萄糖燃料电池

在低温燃料电池中使用葡萄糖作为燃料的优点是其丰富、易于获得、成本低、无毒且无储存问题。可再生的生物质资源，包括淀粉和纤维素，可以很容易地转化为葡萄糖分子，而能源成本很低。本概述侧重于非生物外部葡萄糖燃料电池 (GFC)，表现出可观的性能（最大功率密度 ≥ 0.1 mW cm ^-2）。各种使用固体催化剂的传统酸性和碱性燃料电池都以葡萄糖为燃料。以低分子量化合物和葡萄糖为燃料的传统燃料电池的比较表明，由于部分葡萄糖氧化，形成葡萄糖酸，仅释放两个电子，因此 GFC 的性能要低得多，因此它们仍有很大的改进空间. 一种使用液体催化剂代替固体催化剂的新型燃料电池最近引起了人们的极大兴趣。当用作液体催化剂燃料电池 (LCFC) 的燃料时，与更简单的燃料相比，葡萄糖可提供更好的电池性能。在 LCFC 中，葡萄糖可以被更深地氧化，最高可达 CO ₂. 多元醇的羟基/碳数似乎是决定 LCFC 性能的关键因素，表明较高的多元化合物，如葡萄糖，比简单的醇更适合 LCFC 的燃料。