Indium tin oxide-coated optical fiber tips for affinity electropolymerization

We demonstrate herein that it is possible to create surface-conductive fiber optics, upon which may be electropolymerized a biotinylated polypyrrole thin film, which may then be used to affinity coat the fiber with recognition probes. This fiberoptic electroconductive surface modification is done by the deposition of a thin layer of indium tin oxide. Thereafter, biotin-pyrrole monomers are electropolymerized onto the conductive metal oxide surface. We were able to demonstrate the presence of an electropolymerized polypyrrole-biotin film by allowing horseradish-peroxidase-labeled avidin to link to it and thereafter exposing it to luminol in order to obtain a chemiluminescence radiation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.