A Mediator-Free Bienzyme Amperometric Biosensor Based on Horseradish Peroxidase and Glucose Oxidase Immobilized on Carbon Nanotube Modified Electrode

Carbon Nanostructures as a Multi-Functional Platform for Sensing Applications

The various forms of carbon nanostructures are providing extraordinary new opportunities that can revolutionize the way gas sensors, electrochemical sensors and biosensors are engineered. The great potential of carbon nanostructures as a sensing platform is exciting due to their unique electrical and chemical properties, highly scalable, biocompatible and particularly interesting due to the almost infinite possibility of functionalization with a wide variety of inorganic nanostructured materials and biomolecules. This opens a whole new pallet of specificity into sensors that can be extremely sensitive, durable and that can be incorporated into the ongoing new generation of wearable technology. Within this context, carbon-based nanostructures are amongst the most promising structures to be incorporated in a multi-functional platform for sensing. The present review discusses the various 1D, 2D and 3D carbon nanostructure forms incorporated into different sensor types as well as the novel functionalization approaches that allow such multi-functionality.

Electrochemical sensors and biosensors based on redox polymer/carbon nanotube modified electrodes: a review

The aim of this review is to present the contributions to the development of electrochemical sensors and biosensors based on polyphenazine or polytriphenylmethane redox polymers together with carbon nanotubes (CNT) during recent years. Phenazine polymers have been widely used in analytical applications due to their inherent charge transport properties and electrocatalytic effects. At the same time, since the first report on a CNT-based sensor, their application in the electroanalytical chemistry field has demonstrated that the unique structure and properties of CNT are ideal for the design of electrochemical (bio)sensors. We describe here that the specific combination of phenazine/triphenylmethane polymers with CNT leads to an improved performance of the resulting sensing devices, because of their complementary electrical, electrochemical and mechanical properties, and also due to synergistic effects. The preparation of polymer/CNT modified electrodes will be presented together with their electrochemical and surface characterization, with emphasis on the contribution of each component on the overall properties of the modified electrodes. Their importance in analytical chemistry is demonstrated by the numerous applications based on polymer/CNT-driven electrocatalytic effects, and their analytical performance as (bio) sensors is discussed.

Development of amperometric glucose biosensor based on Prussian Blue functionlized TiO2 nanotube arrays

Amperometric biosensors consisting of oxidase and peroxidase have attracted great attention because of their wide application. The current work demonstrates a novel approach to construct an enzymatic biosensor based on TiO₂ nanotube arrays (TiNTs) as a supporting electrode on which Prussian Blue (PB)-an “artificial enzyme peroxidase” and enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) have been immobilized. For this, PB nanocrystals are deposited onto the nanotube wall photocatalytically using the intrinsic photocatalytical property of TiO₂, and the GOx/AuNPs nanobiocomposites are subsequently immobilized into the nanotubes via the electrodeposition of polymer. The resulting electrode exhibits a fast response, wide linear range, and good stability for glucose sensing. The sensitivity of the sensor is as high as 248 mA M⁻¹ cm⁻², and the detection limit is about 3.2 μM. These findings demonstrate a promising strategy to integrate enzymes and TiNTs, which could provide an analytical access to a large group of enzymes for bioelectrochemical applications including biosensors and biofuel cells.

Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofiber based Biosensor Platform for Glucose Sensor

Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers (VACNFs) have recently become an important tool for biosensor design. Carbon nanofibers (CNF) have excellent conductive and structural properties with many irregularities and defect sites in addition to exposed carboxyl groups throughout their surfaces. These properties allow a better immobilization matrix compared to carbon nanotubes and offer better resolution when compared with the FET-based biosensors. VACNFs can be deterministically grown on silicon substrates allowing optimization of the structures for various biosensor applications. Two VACNF electrode architectures have been employed in this study and a comparison of their performances has been made in terms of sensitivity, sensing limitations, dynamic range, and response time. The usage of VACNF platform as a glucose sensor has been verified in this study by selecting an optimum architecture based on the VACNF forest density.

Monodispersed silica nanoparticles as carrier for co-immobilization of bi-enzyme and its application for glucose biosensing

A novel glucose sensing strategy by using bi-enzyme coated monodispered silica nanoparticles (SiO2) was proposed. The monodispered SiO2 was synthesized according to our previously reported seed-growth methods. Glucose oxidase (GOD) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were simultaneously covalent immobilized on the surface of SiO2 nanoparticles through the cross-linker of glutaraldehyde. The immobilized bi-enzyme remained their bioactivities well for the substrate reaction. Thus, the resultant SiO2-GOD/HRP nanocomposites could be used as catalyst for enzymatic substrate reactions in the presence of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as chromogenic reagent and glucose as substrate. The factors of affecting the catalytic activities of enzymes were optimized. Under optimal conditions, the absorbance at 450 nm in UV-visible spectra increased with the glucose concentration, which could be used for glucose detection with a linear range from 0.5 μM to 250 μM and a detection limit of 0.22 μM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3σ. Considering the potential of making pills using this SiO2-GOD/HRP, the present strategy has good prospect in the clinic science and other fields in future.

Advances in carbon nanotube based electrochemical sensors for bioanalytical applications

Electrochemical (EC) sensing approaches have exploited the use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as electrode materials owing to their unique structures and properties to provide strong electrocatalytic activity with minimal surface fouling. Nanofabrication and device integration technologies have emerged along with significant advances in the synthesis, purification, conjugation and biofunctionalization of CNTs. Such combined efforts have contributed towards the rapid development of CNT-based sensors for a plethora of important analytes with improved detection sensitivity and selectivity. The use of CNTs opens an opportunity for the direct electron transfer between the enzyme and the active electrode area. Of particular interest are also excellent electrocatalytic activities of CNTs on the redox reaction of hydrogen peroxide and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, two major by-products of enzymatic reactions. This excellent electrocatalysis holds a promising future for the simple design and implementation of on-site biosensors for oxidases and dehydrogenases with enhanced selectivity. To date, the use of an anti-interference layer or an artificial electron mediator is critically needed to circumvent unwanted endogenous electroactive species. Such interfering species are effectively suppressed by using CNT based electrodes since the oxidation of NADH, thiols, hydrogen peroxide, etc. by CNTs can be performed at low potentials. Nevertheless, the major future challenges for the development of CNT-EC sensors include miniaturization, optimization and simplification of the procedure for fabricating CNT based electrodes with minimal non-specific binding, high sensitivity and rapid response followed by their extensive validation using "real world" samples. A high resistance to electrode fouling and selectivity are the two key pending issues for the application of CNT-based biosensors in clinical chemistry, food quality and control, waste water treatment and bioprocessing.

Review: Carbon nanotube based electrochemical sensors for biomolecules

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been incorporated in electrochemical sensors to decrease overpotential and improve sensitivity. In this review, we focus on recent literature that describes how CNT-based electrochemical sensors are being developed to detect neurotransmitters, proteins, small molecules such as glucose, and DNA. Different types of electrochemical methods are used in these sensors including direct electrochemical detection with amperometry or voltammetry, indirect detection of an oxidation product using enzyme sensors, and detection of conductivity changes using CNT-field effect transistors (FETs). Future challenges for the field include miniaturizing sensors, developing methods to use only a specific nanotube allotrope, and simplifying manufacturing.

Direct electrochemistry of catalase at multiwalled carbon nanotubes-nafion in presence of needle shaped DDAB for H2O2 sensor

The direct electrochemistry of catalase (CAT) at didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) present on nafion dispersed multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-NF) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) has been reported. The presence of DDAB in MWCNTs-NF-CAT film enhances the surface coverage concentration of CAT (Fe(III/II)) to 48%. Similarly, in presence of DDAB, there is a 57% enhancement in electron transfer rate (ks) with 66% increase in CAT stability. (Fe(III/II)) redox couple exhibits linear dependence with the pH variation (-51 mV pH(-1)). The UV-vis absorption spectroscopy study reveals the entrapped CAT in DDAB film retains its native structure at MWCNTs-NF modified electrodes. Similarly, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results confirm the co-existence of CAT and DDAB in the modified film. Further, scanning electron microscopy results reveal the structural morphological difference between various components in MWCNTs-NF-(DDAB/CAT) film. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometry (i-t curve) have been used for the measurement of electroanalytical properties of H2O2 by means of various film modified GCEs. The sensitivity values of MWCNTs-NF-(DDAB/CAT) film for H2O2 using CV (35.62 microA mM(-1)cm2) are higher than the values which are obtained for MWCNTs-NF-CAT film (2.74 mmicroA mM(-1)cm2). Similarly, the sensitivity values using i-t curve are 101.74 microA mM(-1)cm2 for MWCNTs-NF-(DDAB/CAT) and 74.69 microA mM(-1)cm2 for MWCNTs-NF-CAT film. Finally, the diffusion coefficient of H2O2 at MWCNTs-NF-(DDAB/CAT) film (3.4 x 10(-10) cm2 s(-1)) has been calculated using rotating disc electrode studies.