DNA nanostructures based biosensor for the determination of aromatic compounds

•Simple two step procedure for the formation of DNA nanostructure from a single DNA template sequence is demonstrated.•Electrochemical propertyes of DNA nanostructures have been discussed and compared with that of single stranded and double stranded DNA.•DNA nanostructures immobilized over modified electrode were made to interact with DNA damaging aromatic compounds and calibration curves were obtained.

Graphite electrode was modified using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), chitosan (CS), glutaraldehyde (GTA) and DNA nanostructures (nsDNA). DNA nanostructures of 50 nm in size were produced from single DNA template sequence using a simple two step procedure and were confirmed using TEM and AFM analysis. The modified electrode was applied to the electrochemical detection of aromatic compounds using EIS. The modified electrode was characterized using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). For comparison, electrochemical results derived from single stranded (50 bp length) and double stranded (50 bp length) DNA based biosensors were used. The results indicate that the modified electrode prior to nsDNA immobilization provides a viable platform that effectively promotes electron transfer between nsDNA and the electrode. The mode of binding between the nsDNA and aromatic compounds was investigated using EIS, indicating that the dominant interaction is non-covalent. nsDNA based biosensor was observed to act as an efficient biosensor in selective and sensitive identification of aromatic compounds.