Towards controlled and simple design of non-enzymatic amperometric sensor for glycerol determination in yeast fermentation medium.

Glycerol is a widely used signaling bioanalyte in biotechnology. Glycerol can serve as a substrate or product of many metabolic processes in cells. Therefore, quantification of glycerol in fermentation samples with inexpensive, reliable, and rapid sensing systems is of great importance. In this work, an amperometric assay based on one-step designed electroplated functional Pd layers with controlled design was proposed for a rapid and selective measurement of glycerol in yeast fermentation medium. A novel assay utilizing electroplated Pd-sensing layers allows the quantification of glycerol in yeast fermentation medium in the presence of interfering species with RSD below 3% and recoveries ranged from 99 to 103%. The assay requires minimal sample preparation, viz. adjusting of sample pH to 12. The time taken to complete the electrochemical analysis was 3 min. Remarkably, during investigations, it was revealed that sensitivity and selectivity of glycerol determination on Pd sensors were significantly affected by its adsorption and did not depend on the surface structure of sensing layers. This study is expected to contribute to both fundamental and practical research fields related to a preliminary choice of functional sensing layers for specific biotechnology and life science applications in the future.

First principles of hydrazine electrooxidation at oxide-free and oxide-based palladium electrodes in complex media.

In this study, fundamental aspects that have impact on the electroanalytical detection of hydrazine in phosphate, acetate and yeast fermentation medium in an analytically significant concentration range by several types of palladium (Pd)-modified electrodes, namely, Pd-ink, Pd-sputtered films and palladium nanoparticles (Pd-NPs) were systematically studied. The efficiency of hydrazine electrooxidation is not affected by the composition of multicomponent medium (i), presence of oxygen (ii), morphology or electroactive area (iii), but more likely depends on the purity degree of the electrode surface from residual palladium oxides (iv). In addition, using advanced methods of nanoanalytics and quantum chemistry, the crucial role of hydrazine surface adsorption (v) on oxide-free and oxide-based Pd-electrodes is highlighted. The obtained knowledge will provide future development strategies of electrodes based on nanoparticles of noble metals for tuned and efficient hydrazine electrooxidation in complex fermentation media.

In situ modulation of enzyme activity via heterogeneous catalysis utilizing solid electroplated cofactors.

During product isolation the received bioreceptors often do not exhibit a sufficient biochemical activity due to multistep dissociation and loss of cofactors. However, for bioelectrochemical applications the presence of cofactors is necessary for a successful oxidative or reductive conversion of the substrates to the products. Herein, we show how the immobilization of the required electroplated cofactors in a design of amperometric electrodes can in situ assist the activity of apo-enzymes. Compared to conventional approaches used in enzyme engineering this tailored nanoengineering methodology is superior from economic point of view, labor and time costs, storage conditions, reduced amount of waste and can fill the gap in the development of tuned bioelectrocatalysts.

Mechanistic aspects of functional layer formation in hybrid one-step designed GOx/Nafion/Pd-NPs nanobiosensors.

Amperometric nanobiosensors are crucial time and cost effective analytical tools for the detection of a wide range of bioanalytes, viz. glucose present in complex environments at very low concentrations. Although the excellent analytical performance of nanobiosensors is undoubted, their exact molecular structure often remains unclear. Here, by combining advanced nanoanalytical approaches with theoretical modeling, we conducted a comprehensive study towards the investigation of the molecular structure of a hybrid GOx/Nafion/Pd-NPs layer deposited by electroplating from the multicomponent electrolyte solution on the surface of screen printed electrodes modified with graphene oxide. Specifically, we revealed that Pd2+ cations were adsorbed on GOx amino acid residues, forming the GOx·nPd2+ enzymatic complex. The highest adsorption energy of Pd2+ cations on GOx was found during their interaction with the side chains of basic amino acids and methionine. In addition, we showed and fully validated the end-structure of the one-step designed GOx/Nafion/Pd-NPs nanobiosensor as a structural model mainly composed of GOx and water molecules incorporated into the metal-polymer scaffold. Our approach will thus serve as a guideline for the study of molecular interactions occurring in complex systems and will contribute to the design of the next generation of hybrid nanobiosensors. The proposed mechanism, driving the self-assembly of the hybrid layer, will allow us to construct modular enzymatic nanoanalytical devices with tailored sequences in the future.