Inhibitive determination of mercury and other metal ions by potentiometric urea biosensor.

The biosensor with urease entrapped in PVC layer at the surface of pH-sensitive iridium oxide electrode was applied for testing of mercury and other metal ions inhibition on enzymatic reaction. The calculation of inhibition effect was based on the measurement of initial rate of decrease of biosensor potential (proportional to the initial rate of enzymatic reaction) after addition of substrate after inhibition step. Some differences of inhibition extent were observed for various mercury forms (Hg(NO3)2, HgCl2, PhHgCl and Hg2(NO3)2) as well as for other heavy metal ions investigated as potential interferents. Because the method was not specific, it was applied for the determination of total inhibition effect caused by heavy metal ions in water samples. In the case of most cations tested the total recovery of enzyme activity was possible using Tris buffer solution with EDTA and thioacetamide after less than 10 min regeneration time.

Lactate solid-state biosensor with multilayer of electrodeposited polymers for flow-injection clinical analysis.

In the lactate biosensor, electrodeposited poly(o-phenylenediamine) serves as a convenient matrix for the immobilization of lactate oxidase, but does not provide sufficient discrimination from several interfering species present in physiological fluids. Their effect, however, can be eliminated by additional modification of the working Pt electrode with a bilayer of electrodeposited polypyrrole/polyphenol. Despite continued decrease in biosensor sensitivity, the newly developed three-layer solid-state biosensor was successfully applied in flow-injection determination of lactate in both undiluted and diluted human blood serum samples over a 10 day period. For the lactate concentration range 0.2-5.0 mM in several series of measurements the correlation coefficient values for comparison with photometric determination using a DuPont dimension clinical analyzer were between 0.96 and 0.99. The reproducibility measured for 1:10 diluted serum was 0.6%. The detection limit was estimated as 2 microM.

Enzymatic flow-injection determination of urea in blood serum using potentiometric gas sensor with internal nonactin based ISE.

Ion-selective electrode with cellulose triacetate membrane containing nonactin is employed for the potentiometric detection of ammonia produced in biocatalytic reaction in flow-injection system with enzyme reactor. The elimination of interferences occurring in the presence of alkali metal ions was achieved by covering a nonactin membrane with outer hydrophobic gas permeable membrane. The obtained flow-injection response to ammonia indicates a possibility of ammonia determination down to 10 microM ammonia. In the flow-injection system for urea determination 200 microl of 10-fold diluted blood serum sample was injected into carrier stream of distilled water merged with TRIS buffer, passed through the urease flow-through reactor and then after merging with NaOH stream delivered to the detector. It was found in several series of natural blood serum samples, that the correction for endogenous ammonia in such a determination is not indispensable.