Mercury Electrodes in Biomacromolecule Research of 21st Century: Still Unbeatable?

The invention of polarography and early application of electroanalytical methods, including discoveries of electrochemical activities of proteins and nucleic acids, are inherently connected with mercury electrodes. Despite massive development and application of solid electrodes, the mercury ones keep their uniqueness up to present time, particularly in the areas of (a) structure sensitive analysis of nucleic acids and proteins, and (b) utilization of catalytic hydrogen evolution processes in the presence of natural peptides and protiens, thiol compounds, chemically modified nucleic acids and newly also sulfated carbonhydrates, amino sugars, as well as unmodified nucleic acids In spite of recently reported extension of the working window of carbon electrodes towards the range highly negative potentials (to allow detection nucleobase reduction) it appears the mercury electrodes hold their position in electrochemical studies of biomacromolecules.