Application of hydrogel prepared from ferrocene functionalized amino acid in the design of novel electrochemical immunosensing platform

A simple and novel supramolecular hydrogel was prepared from ferrocene (Fc) modified amino acid phenylalanine (F) and utilized as electrochemical immunosensing platform for the detection of human IgG. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization indicated that the hydrogel is composed of fibrils with diameter around 50-100 nm and length extend to 1 mm. When the prepared hydrogel was reacted with H2O2, the Fc moieties on the amino acid was oxidized, leading to the disruption of the hydrogel structure and the decrease of its redox signal, which was characterized in detail by SEM and the electrochemical method. Regarding the redox current decrease upon the reaction of the hydrogel with H2O2, the hydrogel modified electrode was utilized as immunosensing interface. After the construction of the immunosensor based on the traditional sandwich protocol with glucose oxidase (GOx) functionalized carbon nanotube (CNT) as detection antibody label, the GOx attached onto electrode surface would catalyze glucose reaction to produce H2O2 and cause the decrease of redox current of the electrode. The current change is proportional to the concentration of IgG detected in the range from 0.1 to 100 pg/mL. The high sensitivity, wide linear range and good reproducibility of the immunosensor indicate this immunosensing platform can be easily extended to the detection of other protein biomarkers.