Disposable luminol copolymer-based biosensor for uric acid in urine.

A new electrochemiluminescent (ECL) disposable biosensor for uric acid was manufactured by immobilization in a double-layer design of luminol as a copolymer with 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) and the enzyme uricase in chitosan on gold screen-printed cells. The good mechanical and improved electroluminescent characteristics of the new copolymer poly(luminol-TMB) make it possible to determine uric acid by measuring the growing ECL emission with the analyte concentration. The combination of enzymatic selectivity with ECL sensitivity results in a disposable analytical device with a linear range for uric acid from 1.5×10(-6) to 1.0×10(-4) M, a limit of detection of 4.4×10(-7) M and a precision of 13.1% (1.0×10(-5) M, n=10) as relative standard deviation. Satisfactory results were obtained for uric acid determination in 24h-urine samples compared to a reference procedure. This uric acid biosensor can be used as a low-cost alternative to conventional methods.