Carbon felt-based biocatalytic enzymatic flow-through detectors: Chemical modification of tyrosinase onto amino-functionalized carbon felt using various coupling reagents

Tyrosinase (TYR) was covalently immobilized onto amino-functionalized carbon felt (CF) surface via eight different coupling reagents. Prior to the TYR-immobilization, primary amino group was introduced to the CF surface by the treatment with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The APTES modification of the CF surface was confirmed by XPS and SEM measurements. The terminal amino groups on the CF surface were cross-linked with protein lysine group (or cysteine group) using various coupling reagents. The resulting TYR-immobilized CF (TYR-CF) was utilized as a working electrode unit of a biocatalytic enzymatic flow-through detector. Catechol and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) were used as model analytes for the evaluation of catecholase activity and phenolase activity, respectively, and flow injection peaks based on the electro-reduction of the enzymatically produced o-quinone species were monitored at −0.05 V vs. Ag/AgCl. Among eight coupling reagents, glutaraldehyde (GA) exhibited the best results on the sensitivity, the operational stability and the storage stability. The detection limits of catechol and 4-CP obtained by the GA-coupling method were found to be 6.0 × 10−9 M and 1.5 × 10−8 M, respectively with the sample through-put of 36 samples/h. No serious degradation of the peak current was observed over 30 consecutive samples injections on the GA-coupling method, while gradual decrease in the peak currents was observed on other seven coupling reagents. The GA-coupling method showed the best results on the storage stability, and 85% of original activity for catechol oxidation remained after 25 days storage.