Sugar Power for Cell Phones
Using enzymes commonly found in living cells，a new type of fuel cell produces small amounts of electricity from the technology is able to succeed in mass production，you may some day share your sweet drinks with your cell phone.
In fuel cells，chemical reactions generate electrical process usually relies on precious metals，such as living cells，enzymes perform a similar job，breaking down sugars to obtain electrons and produce energy.
When researchers previously used enzymes in fuel cells，they had trouble keeping them active，says Shelley eer of St Louis eas biological cells continually produce fresh enzymes，there’s no mechanism in fuel cells to replace enzymes as they quickly degrade.
Minteer and Tamara Klotzbach，also of St Louis University，have now developed polymers that wrap around an enzyme and preserve it in a microscopic pocket.“We tailor these pockets to provide the ideal microenvironment” for the enzyme，Minteer polymers keep the enzyme active for months instead of days.
In the new fuel Cell，tiny polymer bags of enzyme are embedded in a membrane that coats one of the glucose from a sugary liquid gets into a pocket，the enzyme oxidizes it，releasing electrons and electrons cross the membrane and enter a wire through which they travel to the other electrode，where they react en in the atmosphere to produce flow of electrons through the wire constitutes an electrical current that can generate power.
So far，the new fuel cells don’t produce much power，but the fact that they work at all is exciting，says Paul Kenis，a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois2 at Urhana-Champaign3.“Just getting it to work.” Kenis says，“is a major accomplishment.”
Sugar-eating fuel cells could be an efficient way to make r is easy to find. And the new fuel cells that run on it are biodegradable，so the technology wouldn’t hurt the scientists are now trying to use different enzymes that will get more power from predict that popular products may be using the new technology in as little as 3 years.
1. According to the first paragraph，when can we share our sweet drinks with our cell phones?
A When enzymes can be commonly found in living ceils.
B When the technology of producing a new type of fuel cell appears.
C When the technology of a new type of fuel cell is suitable for mass production.
D When the technology of mass producing cell phones appears.
2. What trouble did Minteer and Klotzhach have in their research?
