Xanthine biosensor based on the direct oxidation of xanthine at an electrogenerated oligomer film

• Electrochemical copolymerization of o-aminophenol and pyrogallol was first done.
• Poly(o-aminophenol-co-pyrogallol) PAP was an oligomer with free radicals.
• PAP was characterized using electrochemical and spectroscopic methods.
• PAP was used to fabricate xanthine biosensor without xanthine oxidase.
• The biosensor showed a linear range from 1 to 120 μM xanthine with fast response.

Poly(o-aminophenol-co-pyrogallol) (PAP) was first synthesized via the electrochemical copolymerization of o-aminophenol and pyrogallol in the acidic solution, using a reduced graphene oxide/glassy carbon (RGO/GC) electrode as a working electrode. Reduced graphene oxide played an important role in increasing PAP amount deposited on the RGO/GC electrode compared to that on the bare GC electrode, which is due to that RGO has the large specific surface area. The results from the spectra of IR, 1H NMR and ESR and the measurement of molecular weight demonstrated that PAP is an oligomer with the free radicals and exhibited good redox activity in a wide pH range from pH<1–9.0 and can effectively catalyze xanthine oxidation due to the presence of the free radicals and the reversible redox groups in the copolymer chain. On the basis of the direct oxidation of xanthine on PAP, the PAP/RGO/GC electrode was used as a xanthine biosensor. The biosensor showed a linear range from 1.0 to 120 μM xanthine at pH 6.0 with a correction coefficient of 0.9965 and fast response to xanthine oxidation. The peak potential of xanthine oxidation shifted from 0.814 to 0.668 V as pH increased from 5.0 to 7.5.