The detection of formaldehyde in textiles using interdigitated microelectrode array diffusion layer titration with electrogenerated hypobromite

An interdigitated microelectrode array (IDA) was applied to the determination of formaldehyde released from textiles produced in industry. The proposed method is based on formaldehyde reaction with hypobromite which is formed in weakly basic media by control current electrooxidation of bromide on the generator segment of the IDA array. The unreacted hypobromite diffuses through the gap between individually polarisable IDA segments and it is amperometrically detected on the collector segment of the IDA. The efficiency of this nonconvective transfer process in the absence of formaldehyde was substantially higher (78%) in comparison with that when using the rotating ring disc electrode. The influence of the added formaldehyde on the transfer process can be utilised to develop a simple and sensitive analytical procedure for formaldehyde detection with a detection limit of 4×10⁻⁶ mol dm⁻³.     

Indirect voltammetric detection of fluoride ions in toothpaste on a comb-shaped interdigitated microelectrode array

A novel technique based on dynamic electrochemistry for the detection of fluoride ions was developed. It is based on its strong complexation with ferric ion. Formed fluoroferric complex is cathodically inactive at the potential of the reduction of free ferric aquo ion. The voltammetric and amperometric response of platinum comb-shaped interdigitated microelectrode array is decreased after fluoride addition. This decrease serves for the quantification of fluoride ions added to the solution. The detection limit of 4.5 × 10⁻⁵ mol dm⁻³ was achieved when one of the segments of interdigitated microelectrode array (IDA) was used as an indicating electrode. The detection limit is about one order of magnitude lower than in the case of conventional platinum macroelectrode. In comparison with ISE electrodes this method is faster and also avoiding large error resulting from the antilogarithmization of ISE Nerstian response. The method was applied to the analysis of toothpaste.     

Interdigitated array microelectrode based impedance immunosensor for detection of avian influenza virus H5N1

Continuous outbreaks of avian influenza (AI) in recent years with increasing threat to animals and human health have warranted the urgent need for rapid detection of pathogenic AI viruses. In this study, an impedance immunosensor based on an interdigitated array (IDA) microelectrode was developed as a new application for sensitive, specific and rapid detection of avian influenza virus H5N1. Polyclonal antibodies against AI virus H5N1 surface antigen HA (Hemagglutinin) were oriented on the gold microelectrode surface through protein A. Target H5N1 viruses were then captured by the immobilized antibody, resulting in a change in the impedance of the IDA microelectrode surface. Red blood cells (RBCs) were used as biolabels for further amplification of the binding reaction of the antibody-antigen (virus). The binding of target AI H5N1 onto the antibody-modified IDA microelectrode surface was further confirmed by atomic force microscopy. The impedance immunosensor could detect the target AI H5N1 virus at a titer higher than 10³ EID₅₀/ml (EID₅₀: 50% Egg Infective Dose) within 2 h. The response of the antibody-antigen (virus) interaction was shown to be virus titer-dependent, and a linear range for the titer of H5N1 virus was found between 10³ and 10⁷ EID₅₀/ml. Equivalent circuit analysis indicated that the electron transfer resistance of the redox probe [Fe(CN)₆]^3−/4− and the double layer capacitance were responsible for the impedance change due to the protein A modification, antibody immobilization, BSA (bovine serum albumin) blocking, H5N1 viruses binding and RBCs amplification. No significant interference was observed from non-target RNA viruses such as Newcastle disease virus and Infectious Bronchitis disease virus. (The H5N1 used in the study was inactivated virus.)     

Specific detection of oxytetracycline using DNA aptamer-immobilized interdigitated array electrode chip

An electrochemical sensing system for oxytetracycline (OTC) detection was developed using ssDNA aptamer immobilized on gold interdigitated array (IDA) electrode chip. A highly specific ssDNA aptamer that bind to OTC with high affinity was employed to discriminate other tetracyclines (TCs), such as doxycycline (DOX) and tetracycline (TET). The immobilized thiol-modified aptamer on gold electrode chip served as a biorecognition element for the target molecules and the electrochemical signals generated from interactions between the aptamers and the target molecules was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV). The current decrease due to the interference of bound OTC, DOX or TET was analyzed with the electron flow produced by a redox reaction between ferro- and ferricyanide. The specificity of developed EC-biosensor for OTC was highly distinguishable from the structurally similar antibiotics (DOX and TET). The dynamic range was determined to be 1-100 nM of OTC concentration in semi-logarithmic coordinates.     

Reusable conductimetric array of interdigitated microelectrodes for the readout of low-density microarrays

Low-density protein microarrays are emerging tools in diagnostics whose deployment could be primarily limited by the cost of fluorescence detection schemes. This paper describes an electrical readout system of microarrays comprising an array of gold interdigitated microelectrodes and an array of polydimethylsiloxane microwells, which enabled multiplexed detection of up to thirty six biological events on the same substrate. Similarly to fluorescent readout counterparts, the microarray can be developed on disposable glass slide substrates. However, unlike them, the presented approach is compact and requires a simple and inexpensive instrumentation. The system makes use of urease labeled affinity reagents for developing the microarrays and is based on detection of conductivity changes taking place when ionic species are generated in solution due to the catalytic hydrolysis of urea. The use of a polydimethylsiloxane microwell array facilitates the positioning of the measurement solution on every spot of the microarray. Also, it ensures the liquid tightness and isolation from the surrounding ones during the microarray readout process, thereby avoiding evaporation and chemical cross-talk effects that were shown to affect the sensitivity and reliability of the system. The performance of the system is demonstrated by carrying out the readout of a microarray for boldenone anabolic androgenic steroid hormone. Analytical results are comparable to those obtained by fluorescent scanner detection approaches. The estimated detection limit is 4.0 ng mL⁻¹, this being below the threshold value set by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the European Community.     

谷胱甘肽在粉末微电极上的电化学行为及其检测

研究GSH在铂、玻碳以及用乙炔黑填充的粉末微电极(AB PME)表面的电化学行为.结果表明,在铂和玻碳电极上,GSH的电化学氧化是一个高度不可逆的反应,相应的CV曲线均未出现氧化电流峰或电流平台.而在AB PME电极上,GSH电化学氧化的表观可逆性得到明显提高,其超电势较常规电极下降约0.5V.且其氧化电流峰,与溶液本体的GSH浓度成良好线性关系.采用此法可完全消除AA和UA对GSH测定的干扰,由"内标法"成功地检测了人体血液中的GSH的浓度.又根据稳态极化曲线和极限扩散电流测定,GSH在AB PME电极表面的电化学氧化是一个单电子反应.     

二茂铁修饰碳黑微电极同时测定多巴胺和抗坏血酸

研究了神经递质多巴胺(DA)和抗坏血酸(AA)在二茂铁修饰碳黑微电极上的电化学行为。实验结果表明,在pH4.5的磷酸盐中,DA在该电极上的线性范围为2.0×10-6～4.0×10-3mol/L,检出限(3σ)为1.0×10-6mol/L;AA在该电极上的线性范围为6.0×10-6～1.0×10-3mol/L,检出限(3σ)为2.0×10-6mol/L;用这种电极可以同时测定多巴胺,抗坏血酸。     

On-line microfluidic sensor integrated with a micro array electrode and enzyme-modified pre-reactor for the real-time monitoring of blood catecholamine

We developed an on-line microfluidic sensing device with an interdigitated array (IDA) electrode and a micro pre-reactor for the real-time monitoring of blood catecholamine (CA) and succeeded in the highly sensitive detection of dopamine (DA) in the presence of L-ascorbic acid (AA). Our device exhibits the lowest detection limit (110 ± 10 pM (S/N=3)), of reported catecholamine sensors. The improvement in sensitivity results from the high redox cycling of DA and the increase in the mass transfer rate per unit time onto the IDA electrode achieved by the flow measurement. The pre-reactor was integrated upstream in the micro flow channel to eliminate AA. A large number of rectangular shaped micropillars, which were modified with ascorbate oxidase, were formed in the pre-reactor to increase the surface area. The flow was disturbed by the two dimensional micropillar arrangement. This structure enables us to increase the elimination efficiency for AA. As a result, we achieved both the continuous and highly selective detection of 1 nM DA with complete elimination of 10 μM AA in the sample solution without employing any selective membrane such as Nafion, whose use reduces sensitivity due to the low diffusion coefficient of DA inside the membrane.     

Glucose sensor based on redox-cycling between selectively modified and unmodified combs of carbon interdigitated array nanoelectrodes

We present a novel electrochemical glucose sensor employing an interdigitated array (IDA) of 1:1 aspect ratio carbon nanoelectrodes for the electrochemical-enzymatic redox cycling of redox species (ferricyanide/ferrocyanide) between glucose oxidase (GOx) and the two comb-shaped nanoelectrodes of the IDA. The carbon nanoelectrodes were fabricated using a simple, cost-effective, reproducible microfabrication technology known as the carbon-microelectromechanical-systems (C-MEMS) process. One comb (comb 1) of the IDA was selectively modified with GOx via the electrochemical reduction of an aryl diazonium salt, while the other comb (comb 2) remained unmodified; this facilitates electrochemically more active surface of comb 2, resulting in sensitive glucose detection. Ferricyanide is reduced to ferrocyanide by the GOx in the presence of glucose, and ferrocyanide diffuses to both combs of the IDA where it is oxidized. The limited electrochemical current collection at the surface-modified comb 1 is counterbalanced by the efficient redox cycling between the enzyme sites at comb 1 and the bare carbon surface of comb 2. Reducing the electrode-to-electrode gap between the two combs (gap = 1.9 μm) increases the diffusion flux of redox species at comb 2 hence, enhanced the sensitivity and limit of detection of the glucose sensor by ∼2.3 and ∼295 times, respectively at comb 2 compared to comb 1. The developed IDA-based glucose sensor demonstrated good amperometric response to glucose, affording two linear ranges from 0.001 to 1 mM and from 1 to 10 mM, with limits of detection of 0.4 and 61 μM and sensitivities of 823.2 and 70.0 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻², respectively.     

Microanalytical Determination of Formaldehyde by Direct Titration with Hydroxylamine Using Interdigitated Microelectrode Array Biamperometric End-Point Indicator

 An interdigitated microelectrode array (IDA) biamperometric titration is presented for the microdetermination of formaldehyde. It is based on a direct titration of formaldehyde with hydroxylamine under the formation of formaldoxime. The released hydrogen cations react with hydroxyl anions in 0.1 M NaOH. The interdigitated pair of two individually polarizable microelectrodes serves as a biamperometric end-point indicator. Hydroxylamine together with dissolved free oxygen behave as a quasi reversible mixed redox system, therefore a significant increase of current flowing between the IDA segments polarized by 100 mV is observed when the first excess of titrant appears in the titrated solution. Because of the small dimension of the IDA sensor this principle can be extended for a microanalytical variant of this method. Formaldehyde contents down to 10⁻³ M in small volume waste water samples could be determined by this technique. These samples usually contain carboxylic acids which interfere in iodimetric determinations, but do not influence the titration of formaldehyde with hydroxylamine. Received January 21, 2002; accepted August 7, 2002     

Study on the Indirect Electrochemical Detection of Ammonium Ion with In Situ Electrogenerated Hypobromous Acid

The electrochemical oxidation of bromide in the presence of ammonium ion (NH ) was studied by cyclic voltammetry and UV‐vis spectroscopy. The experimental results suggested that the anodically generated bromine (Br₂) would be hydrolyzed to hypobromous acid (HBrO) at the pH range of 5–7 and was further disproportionate to hypobromite anion (BrO^?) when pH was larger than 7. Both HBrO and BrO^? were confirmed to be participated in the following homogeneous chemical reaction with the coexisted ammonium ion. However, HBrO is electroactive whereas BrO^‐ is electroinactive at carbon electrode. Based upon the reaction of HBrO with NH , an indirect electrochemical method was proposed for determination of NH with dual‐electrode configuration in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7), where HBrO was produced at a generator electrode and the excess HBrO was subsequently detected at a collector electrode after a reaction with NH in a batch solution or in a micro flow injection analytical (micro‐FIA) system by using an interdigitated array (IDA) Pt microelectrode and a carbon film ring‐disk electrode (CFRDE), respectively. The decreasing of reduction current at the collector electrode was proportional to the concentration NH in both systems, with the detection limit below 3.0 μM. This approach shows the advantage of highly selectivity even in presence of a large amount of coexisted cations, and was successfully applied for the determination of NH in environmental water samples.     

Voltammetric determination of coenzyme Q10 in pharmaceutical dosage forms

A simple and rapid voltammetric method has been developed for the quantitative determination of coenzyme Q(10) (CoQ(10)) in pharmaceutical preparations. Studies with differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) were carried out using a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) in a mixed solvent containing 80 vol.% acetic acid and 20 vol.% acetonitrile. A well-defined reduction peak of CoQ(10) was obtained at -20 mV vs. Ag/AgCl. The voltammetric technique applied provides a precise determination of CoQ(10) using the multiple standard addition method. The statistical parameters and the recovery study data clearly indicate good reproducibility and accuracy of the method. The accuracy of the results assessed by recovery trials was observed to be within the range of 101.1% to 102.5%. The detection and quantification limits were found to be 0.014 mM (12 mg L(-1)) and 0.046 mM (40 mg L(-1)), respectively. An analysis of real samples containing CoQ(10) showed no interferences with common additives and excipients, such as unsaturated fatty acids and soya lecithin. The method proposed does not require any pretreatment of the pharmaceutical dosage forms. A spectrophotometric determination of CoQ(10) in real samples diluted in mixtures containing ethanol and n-hexane was also performed for comparison.     

Determination of ascorbic acid in pharmaceutical dosage forms and urine by means of an oscillatory reaction system using the pulse perturbation technique

A simple and reliable method for the determination of ascorbic acid (AA) is proposed and validated. It is based on potentiometric monitoring of the concentration perturbations of an oscillatory reaction system in a stable nonequilibrium stationary state close to the bifurcation point. The response of the Bray–Liebhafsky (BL) oscillatory reaction as a matrix, to the perturbation by different concentrations of AA, is followed by a Pt electrode. The linear relationship between maximal potential shift and the logarithm of the amount of AA is obtained between 0.01 and 1.0 μmol. The sensitivity of the proposed method (as the limit of detection) is 0.009 μmol and the method has excellent sample throughput (30 samples per hour). The procedure was used for AA determination in pharmaceutical formulations and urine. The results are in agreement with those obtained using the official method. Some aspects of the possible mechanism of AA action on the BL oscillating chemical system are discussed.     

Determination of Ethambutol in Aqueous Medium Using an Inexpensive Gold Microelectrode Array as Amperometric Sensor

In this paper, gold microelectrode array (Au‐MEA) were employed to determination of ethambutol in aqueous medium. Au‐MEA was constructed with an electronic microchip integrated circuit. The standard curve (analytical curve) was constructed for a single microelectrode (ME) in a concentration range of 5.0×10^?5 to 2.0×10^?3 mol L^?1, allowing estimation of both the limit of detection (LOD) (4.73×10^?5 mol L^?1) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) (1.57×10^?4 mol L^?1) for ethambutol. When the MEA was utilized, the LOD and LOQ were 1.55×10^?7 and 5.18×10^?7 mol L^?1, respectively. Our results indicated that Au‐MEA can be utilized as amperometric sensors for ethambutol determination in aqueous media.     

Determination of paracetamol in dosage forms by non-suppressed ion chromatography

An ion-chromatography procedure for the simultaneous determination of paracetamol and salicylic acid without suppression using UV detection is proposed. The method is applied to the determination of paracetamol in pharmaceuticals and also permits the quantitation of the total acetylsalicylic acid as salicylic acid.     

Determination of metal ions extracted by DTPA in a soil treated with effluent using an Hg-electroplated-Pt microelectrode

Determinations of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn were performed in an oxisol soil treated with effluent originated from a biodigester septic cesspool. The extracts were obtained from a DTPA/TEA (pH 7.3) solution and analysed by electroanalytical methodologies using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) for the analysis of Cu, Mn and Zn and square wave voltammetry (SWV) for Fe analysis, both of them with a thin mercury film microelectrode (ME-Hg). DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid) complexes with Cu, Mn and Fe show electroactivity in the potentials range close to the ones for the free ions in solution, but the Zn complex did not show any electroactivity at the potential range analysed. SWASV/ME-Hg and SWV/ME-Hg results were in good agreement (r² = 0.996) with the flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) analyses, demonstrating that electroanalytical methodologies can be used for micronutrient determinations in soil extracts without serious interferences of the matrix components. Some characteristics of the complex formed between DTPA-metals are explored by EPR experiments.     

Determination of isoniazid and hydrazine by capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection at a Pt-particle modified carbon fiber microelectrode

Capillary electrpphoresis (CE)/electrochemical detection (EC) for the simultane-ous determination of hydrazine and isoniazid has been developed.The electrochemical method uses a novel modified electrode dispersed with ultrafine platinum particles on the surface of a 30μm carbon fiber microelectrode.The unique characteristic of the Pt-particles modified carbon fiber microelectrode is its excellent stability.The current measurement for hydrazine is more sensitive than that of isoniazid.Selective determination of trace amount of free hydrazine in isoniazid and its formulation can be achieved at applied potential of 0.5V.     

Amperometric Determination of Ascorbic Acid at an Electrodeposited Redox Polymer Film Modified Gold Electrode

A sensitive and selective electrochemical method for the determination of ascorbic acid was developed. It was shown that a hydrated osmium complex‐containing redox polymer film can be electrodeposited at the gold electrode and it exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of ascorbic acid. In contrast to a bare gold electrode, the oxidation current of ascorbic acid increased greatly and the oxidation peak potential shifted negatively to about 0.01 V (vs. SCE) at the modified electrode. Amperometric measurements were performed at an applied potential of 0.01 V and a linear response was obtained in the range of 2–400 μM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.6 μM (S/N=3). The interference studies showed that the modified electrode exhibits excellent selectivity in the presence of large excess of uric acid and dopamine. The proposed procedure was successfully applied to the determination of ascorbic acid in human urine samples.     

Fast Fourier transformation with continuous cyclic voltammetry at an Au microelectrode for the determination of morphine in a flow injection system

For the fast morphine monitoring in flow injection systems a highly sensitive method is being introduced in this work. The fast Fourier transformation with continuous cyclic voltammetry (FFTCV) in a flowing solution as a detection system was applied for the prompt morphine monitoring. Here it should be stressed that this technique is simple, precise, accurate, time saving and economical. This research includes the observation of the effects of various parameters on the sensitivity of the detection system. Eventually, it was concluded that the best condition was obtained within the pH value of 2, scan rate value of 40 V s⁻¹, accumulation potential of 400 mV and accumulation time of 0.6 s.In detail, the noteworthy advantages which this method illustrates in comparison with other reported methods are the following; no necessity for the oxygen removal from the test solution, a sub-nano molar detection limit and the fast determination of any such compound in a wide variety of chromatographic methods.The method proved to be linear over the concentration range of 285-305,300 pg mL⁻¹ (r = 0.999) with a detection limit and a quantitation limit of 95.5 and 285 pg mL⁻¹, respectively. Consequently, the method illustrates the requisite accuracy, sensitivity, precision and selectivity to assay morphine in its tablets and biological fluids.