New Electrodes Based on Polymer-Brush-Enzyme Decorated Carbon Particles for Electrochemical Bio-Sensing

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Leonid Ionov; Privatdozentin Dr. Alla Synytska
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444275765

Development of amperometric enzyme-based biosensors is vitally important for medical diagnosis, for monitoring of health and environment, for food and drug analysis. The performance of such sensors strongly depends on way how enzyme is incorporated in the working electrode. The current methods for incorporation of enzymes have substantial drawbacks such as low loading density, denaturing of enzymes and difficulty of fabrication. The general goal of this project is to explore possibilities for the development of novel bioactive materials for working electrodes using polymer brushes with incorporated enzymes immobilized on carbon particles. The polymer brush layer around carbon core will allow very high loading capacity of enzyme. In order to achieve this goal, we will (i) develop method for immobilization of polymer brushes on carbon particles; (ii) immobilize enzymes in the brush and investigate effect of brush chemical composition, grafting density, length of the polymeric chains on the amount and activity of an immobilized enzyme; (iii) fabricate electrodes, investigate effect of particle architecture on electrical conductivity of printed particle layer and effects of particle architecture and printing procedure on stability and activity of enzymes as well as (iv) investigate effects of particle architecture on electrochemical behavior of printed electrodes. All these tasks will be realized in tight collaboration between IPF and Bayreuth groups. The main project output is knowledge about the behavior of enzymes in brush layers grown from carbon particles and fundamental understanding of mass/charge transport in layers formed by conductive particle-brush-enzyme layers. In a long-term perspective, this knowledge will be very important for increasing of sensitivity electrochemical sensors and for their miniaturization.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants