Dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes in poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) for preparation of a glucose biosensor

Poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) was chosen to disperse single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The optimal conditions to prepare stable PDDA–SWCNTs aqueous dispersions were presented. Then, the positively charged PDDA–SWCNTs composite and negatively charged glucose oxidase (GOD) were employed to fabricate multilayer films on platinum (Pt) electrodes by layer-by-layer self-assembly technique. The consecutive growth of the multilayer films was confirmed by quartz crystal microbalance. Electrochemical measurements were used to study the properties of the proposed biosensor. Results demonstrated that SWCNTs were evenly dispersed within the PDDA films and efficiently improved the conductivity of the resulting films. Among the biosensors, the one based on seven layers of multilayer films got the best performance. It showed wide linear range of 0.05–12 mM, high sensitivity of 63.84 μA/(mM cm2), low detection limit of about 4 μM and small value of the apparent Michaelis–Menten constant, 8.46 mM. In addition, the biosensor also exhibited good suppression of interference and long-term operational stability. This protocol could be used to immobilize other enzymes to construct a range of biosensors.