ONLINE ORGANIC-PHASE ENZYME DETECTOR

The utility of flow carbon-fiber enzyme electrodes for on-line biomonitoring of organic streams is illustrated. The enzymes peroxidase and tyrosinase are immobilized by simple adsorption onto an electrochemically pretreated carbon-fiber surface. The resulting detectors respond very rapidly to dynamic changes in the concentration of organic peroxides and phenolic compounds in flowing chloroform and acetonitrile solutions. The flow-injection operation is characterized with high sample throughputs (60 h-1), good precision (1.1-1.7% R.S.D.) and detection limits of 2-4 x 10(-5) M. The organic-phase enzyme electrode could be combined with various types of analytical flow systems and should allow on-line monitoring of previously inaccessible organic matrices.