A single carbon fiber microelectrode with branching carbon nanotubes for bioelectrochemical processes

Carbon fiber electrodes are greatly promising for microelectronic applications including high performance biosensors, miniaturized transmitters, and energy storage and generation devices. For biosensor applications, one drawback of using carbon fiber microelectrodes, especially single fiber electrodes, is the weak electronic signals, a consequence of low surface area of fibers, which ultimately limit the sensitivity of the sensors. In this paper, we report a novel single fiber microelectrode with branched carbon nanotubes for enhanced sensing performance. The fiber microelectrode was prepared from carbonization of cellulose fibers. Upon introduction of carbon nanotubes, the carbon fibers exhibited a significant increase in the specific surface area from