A glucose oxidase electrode based on polypyrrole with polyanion/PEG/enzyme conjugate dopant

This study investigated a new glucose sensor prepared by electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole with polyanion/poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)/glucose oxidase (GOD) conjugate dopants. GOD was coupled to a strong polyanion, poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid) (AMPS) via PEG spacer to effectively and reproducibly immobilize GOD within a polypyrrole matrix onto a Pt electrode surface. PEGs with four different chain lengths (1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000) were used as spacers to study the spacer length effect on enzyme immobilization and electrode function. After conjugation, more than 90% of the GOD bioactivity was preserved and the bioactivity of the conjugated GOD increased with longer PEG spacers. The resulting polyanion/PEG/GOD conjugate was used as a dopant for electropolymerizing pyrrole. The activity of the immobilized enzyme on the electrode ranged from 119 to 209 mU cm(-2) and the bioactivity increased with the use of longer PEG spacers. The amperometric response of the enzyme electrode was linear up to 20 mM glucose concentration with a sensitivity ranging from 180 to 270 nA mM(-1) cm(-2). The kinetic parameters Michaelis-Menten constant (K-M(app)) and maximum current density (j(max)) depended on the amount of active enzyme, level of substrate diffusion, and PEG spacer length. An increase in the electrical charge passed during polymerization (thus, increasing polypyrrole thickness) to 255 mC cm(-2) increased the sensitivity of the enzyme electrode because of the greater amount of incorporated enzyme. However, although the amount of incorporated GOD continued to increase when the charge increased above 255 mC cm(-2), the sensitivity began to decline gradually. The condition for preparing the enzyme electrode was optimized at 800 mV potential with a dopant concentration of 1 mg ml(-1). (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.