Nanostructured photoactivatable electrode surface based on pyrene diazirine

An original versatile methodology for molecular grafting on different surfaces via the photoinduced formation of a covalent bond based on a diazirine group is reported. The synthesis and electrochemical behavior of a new diazirine derivative which acts as a molecular linking bridge bearing both a photoactivatable covalent binding group (diazirine) and a non-covalent binding group (pyrene) is described. The resulting pyrene-diazirine was electropolymerized onto a platinum electrode and under UV irradiation was successfully used to graft ferrocenemethanol and glucose oxidase (model small molecule and protein, respectively), conferring specific properties on the resulting materials. Furthermore, the immobilization of the diazirine derivative onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) by π-stacking interaction or by electropolymerization onto both bare and MWCNT-coated platinum electrodes enabled photografting of glucose oxidase.