Two Nanostructured Polymers: Polyaniline Nanofibers and New Linear-dendritic Matrix of Poly(citric acid)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) Copolymers for Environmental Monitoring in Novel Biosensors

Abstract

In this work two phenol biosensors, one based on polyaniline nanofibers (PNFs) and the other based on the newly created and introduced linear-dendritic matrix of poly(citric acid)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymers (PCA-PEG-PCA), were chemically modified with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme. These phenol biosensors showed an oxidation peak at 0.55 V. The amperometric response for biosensors based on PNFs showed a linear response range from 2.5 × 10⁻⁶ to 2.5 × 10⁻⁵ mol/L, with a detection limit of 2.5 µM phenol. Also, the amperometric response for a biosensor based on PCA-PEG-PCA showed a linear response range from 2.5 × 10⁻⁶ to 4 × 10⁻⁵ mol/L, with a detection limit of 1.5 µM phenol.

Keywords:

• Amperometric biosensor
• horseradish peroxidase
• phenol
• poly(citric acid)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymers
• polyaniline nanofibers

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the “Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative Council” for their financial support of this work.