Permselective and enzyme-entrapping behaviours of an electropolymerized, non-conducting, poly(o-aminophenol) thin film-modified electrode: a critical study.

Non-conducting polymeric films synthesised by the electrooxidation of o-aminophenol on a platinum electrode in acetate or phosphate buffer displayed an interesting permselective behaviour, which proved valuable in minimising the electrochemical interferences from ascorbate, acetaminophen, cysteine and urate sample molecules in amperometric detection mode. The electrosynthesis of poly(o-aminophenol) (p(oAP)) film showed also useful as permselective membrane for enzyme immobilization as demonstrated by the production of an interference-free glucose oxidase biosensor. In this respect, the glucose response time, t(0.95), evaluated in batch addition experiments, was lower than 5s while the calibration curve was linear up to 10mM of glucose with a sensitivity of 69.7nA/mM. Both the permselective behaviour and the enzyme-entrapping property of the film were critically compared with the relevant studies until now reported. With respect to the sophisticated but complex approaches described elsewhere, this study shows that simply a proper optimization of p(oAP) electrosynthesis and its permselective behaviour is the key to improve significantly the selectivity of the resulting analytical devices.