Enantioselective uptake of amino acids using an electromodulated column packed with carbon fibres modified with overoxidised polypyrrole

A column packed with carbon fibres modified with overoxidized polypyrrole was utilised for the enantioselective uptake of glutamic acid. The polypyrrole prepared with L-glutamate as a dopant was electrochemically overoxidised to create a complementary cavity for the dopant. The target amino acid enantiomers were taken up and released by applying potential to the carbon fibre stationary phase. The uptake performance of an overoxidised polypyrrole modified carbon fibre electrode was investigated by optimising various important overoxidation parameters such as an overoxidation medium and applied potential. Under optimised conditions of overoxidation and with a column wash between the consecutive measurements, the reproducible uptake of L-glutamic acid was almost six times higher than that of D-glutamic acid. Further, in a comparison, the recognition ability of overoxidized polypyrrole with a pseudo-template cavity was examined.