Development and optimization of rotating disk enzyme electrodes: Undergraduate research projects in chemical sensors

CHED 1828

Niina J. Ronkainen-Matsuno, NRonkainen@ben.edu, Sahar Karimi, Angela Peverly, Angela_Peverly@ben.edu, Chintan Prajapati, Chintan_Prajapati@ben.edu, Kushal D. Shah, arman81us@yahoo.com, and Delin Wang, NRonkainen@ben.edu. Department of Chemistry, Benedictine University, 5700 College Road, Lisle, IL 60532
Enzyme electrodes are popular biosensors as they are reusable, simple and inexpensive to construct, easy to regenerate, and provide rapid analysis. Enzyme electrodes combine the high sensitivity of amperometric detection with inherent bioselectivity of enzymes. The enzymes are immobilized on the surface of a rotating disk electrode via electropolymerization or electrodeposition and protected from leaching by the addition of a semipermeable membrane. Undergraduate research projects culminating in senior thesis that were conducted at Benedictine University by five Chemistry and Biochemistry majors on the development of rotating disk enzyme electrodes for β-D-glucose, lactate, xanthine, and alcohol will be described. Experimental conditions such as detection potential, pH, temperature, and electrode rotation rate were optimized with free and/or bound enzyme for each sensor.