An amperometric microbial biosensor development based on Candida tropicalis yeast cells for sensitive determination of ethanol

For the sensitive determination of ethanol a new amperometric biosensor based on Candida tropicalis cells, which contains alcohol oxidase enzyme, immobilized in gelatin by using glutaraldehyde was developed. In the study, before the microbial biosensor construction C. tropicalis cells were activated and cultured in a culture medium. By using gelatine and glutaraldehyde (0.1%) C. tropicalis cells obtained in logarithmic phase were immobilized and fixed on a pretreated teflon membrane of a dissolved oxygen probe. Ethanol determination is based on the assay of the differences on the respiration activity of the cells on the oxygenmeter in the absence and the presence of ethanol. The microbial biosensor response was depend linearly on ethanol concentration between 0.5 and 7.5 mM with 2 min response time. In the optimization studies of the microbial biosensor the most suitable microorganism amount were found as 4.42 mg cm−2 and also phosphate buffer (pH:7.5; 50 mM) and 30 °C were obtained as the optimum working conditions. In the characterization studies of the microbial biosensor some parameters such as substrate specificity, interference effects of some substances on the biosensor response, operational and storage stability were carried out.