A family of customizable tethering molecules for tethering cofactors such as, but not necessarily limited to, nicotinamine adenine dinucleotide (NAD+/NADH, NAD(P)+/NAD(P)H) to substrates or structures formed from or including graphene-like materials is described. The tethered cofactor can then be used, for example, as biosensors employed for clinical diagnostic, food industry, medical drug development and environmental and military applications, as well as in reagentless biofuel cells for power generation.