Flow injection differential potentiometric determination of lysine by using a lysine biosensor

This paper describes a method for the determination of lysine based on a flow injection (FI) differential potentiometry system. The flow injection manifold is composed of a support electrolyte solution channel and a water channel acting as a carrier into which the sample solution is injected. The lysine biosensor was consisted of lysine oxidase chemically immobilized on a nylon membrane and attached to an all-solid-state ammonium electrode. A circular ammonium electrode was used as a reference. Hence, the possible interference of endogenous ammonium can be partly corrected by differential potentiometry. In order to increase the sensitivity of the response, the reaction was kinetically developed following a stopped-flow method. As a result, the sensitivity increased from 20 to 40 mV per decade when comparing the FI and the stopped-flow values. Furthermore, the peak-to-peak stopped-flow signals generated can be used as a more selective analytical response for lysine. The quantification of lysine in mixture samples containing small amounts of ammonium can be achieved with an acceptable accuracy, with prediction errors lower than 4%. However, when the ammonium concentration exceeded the lysine concentration, multivariate calibration with non-linear partial least squares (PLS) regression was needed to improve the lysine quantification, with an overall prediction error around 10%.