Cecilia Lete

Development of Amperometric Biosensors Based on Nanostructured Tyrosinase-Conducting Polymer Composite Electrodes

Bio-composite coatings consisting of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and tyrosinase (Ty) were successfully electrodeposited on conventional size gold (Au) disk electrodes and microelectrode arrays using sinusoidal voltages. Electrochemical polymerization of the corresponding monomer was carried out in the presence of various Ty amounts in aqueous buffered solutions. The bio-composite coatings prepared using sinusoidal voltages and potentiostatic electrodeposition methods were compared in terms of morphology, electrochemical properties, and biocatalytic activity towards various analytes. The amperometric biosensors were tested in dopamine (DA) and catechol (CT) electroanalysis in aqueous buffered solutions. The analytical performance of the developed biosensors was investigated in terms of linear response range, detection limit, sensitivity, and repeatability. A semi-quantitative multi-analyte procedure for simultaneous determination of DA and CT was developed. The amperometric biosensor prepared using sinusoidal voltages showed much better analytical performance. The Au disk biosensor obtained by 50 mV alternating voltage amplitude displayed a linear response for DA concentrations ranging from 10 to 300 μM, with a detection limit of 4.18 μM.

Low-Temperature synthesis and thermodynamic and electrical properties of barium titanate nanorods

Studies regarding the morphology dependence of the perovskite-type oxides functional materials properties are of recent interest. With this aim, nanorods (NRs) and nanocubes (NCs) of barium titanate (BaTiO3) have been successfully synthesized via a hydrothermal route at temperature as low as 408 K, employing barium acetate, titanium isopropoxide, and sodium hydroxide as reagents without any surfactant or template. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), used for the morphology and structure analyses, showed that the NRs were formed by an oriented attachment of the NCs building-blocks with 20 nm average crystallites size. The thermodynamic properties represented by the relative partial molar free energies, enthalpies, and entropies of the oxygen dissolution in the perovskite phase, as well as the equilibrium partial pressure of oxygen, indicated that NRs powders have lower oxygen vacancies concentration than the NCs. This NRs characteristic, together with higher tetragonallity of the structure, leads to the enhancement of the dielectric properties of BaTiO3 ceramics. The results presented in this work show indubitably the importance of the nanopowders morphology on the material properties.