Urea potentiometric biosensor based on modified electrodes with urease immobilized on polyethylenimine films

The development of a new electrochemical sensor consisting in a glass-sealed metal microelectrode coated by a polyethylenimine film is described. The use of polymers as the entrapping matrix for enzymes fulfils all the requirements expected for these materials without damaging the biological material. Since enzyme immobilization plays a fundamental role in the performance characteristics of enzymatic biosensors, we have tested four different protocols for enzyme immobilization to determine the most reliable one. Thus the characteristics of the potentiometric biosensors assembled were studied and compared and it appeared that the immobilization method leading to the most efficient biosensors was the one consisting in a physical adsorption followed by reticulation with dilute aqueous glutaraldehyde solutions. Indeed, the glutaraldehyde, immobilized urease sensor provides many advantages, compared to the other types of sensors, since this type of urea biosensor exhibits short response times (15-30 s), sigmoidal responses for the urea concentration working range from 1 x 10(-2.5) to 1 X 10(-1.5) M and a lifetime of 4 weeks. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.