Development of biosensors based on hexacyanoferrates.

Ferric and copper hexacyanoferrates (PB and CuHCF, respectively) were electrodeposited on glassy carbon electrodes providing a suitable catalytic surface for the amperometric detection of hydrogen peroxide. Additionally glucose oxidase was immobilized on top of these electrodes to form glucose biosensors. The biosensors were made by casting glucose oxidase-Nafion layers onto the surface of the modified electrodes. The operational stability of the films and the biosensors were evaluated by injecting a standard solution (5 muM H(2)O(2) for PB, 5 mM H(2)O(2) for CuHCF and 2.5 mM glucose for both) over 5-10 h in a flow-injection system with the electrodes polarized at -50 (PB) and -200 mV (CuHCF) versus Ag/AgCl, respectively. The glucose biosensors demonstrated suitability for glucose determination: 0.0-2.5 mM (R(2)=0.9977) for PB and 0.0-10 mM (R(2)=0.9927) for CuHCF, respectively. The visualization of the redox catalyst modifiers (PB and CuHCF films) was presented by scanning electron micrographs.

Pervaporation: an integrated evaporation/gas-diffusion approach to analytical continuous separation techniques.

A flexible pervaporation module was developed and characterized. The spacers it uses allows the volume of the donor and/or acceptor to be altered as required. The performance of the module was tested as regards both dynamic behaviour and continuous pervaporation in terms of flow-rates, temperature, type of membrane, flow mode, etc. A method for the determination of ethanol in different types of wine was developed and applied to various samples in order to validate the proposed continuous separation approach.