pH-, Sugar-, and Temperature-Sensitive Electrochemical Switch Amplified by Enzymatic Reaction and Controlled by Logic Gates Based on Semi-Interpenetrating Polymer Networks

Phenylboronic acid (PBA) moieties are grafted onto the backbone of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), forming the PAA-PBA polyelectrolyte. The semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) films composed of PAA-PBA and poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) (PDEA) were then synthesized on electrode surface with entrapped horseradish peroxidase (HRP), designated as PDEA-(PAA-PBA)-HRP. The films demonstrated reversible pH-, fructose-, and thermo-responsive on-off behavior toward electroactive probe K3Fe(CN)(6) in its cyclic voltammetric (CV) response. This multiswitchable CV behavior of the system could be further employed to control and modulate the electrochemical reduction of H2O2 catalyzed by HRP immobilized in the films with K3Fe(CN)(6) as the mediator in solution. The responsive mechanism of the system was also explored and discussed. The pH-sensitive property was attributed to the electrostatic interaction between the PAA component of the films and the probe at different pH; the thermo-responsive behavior originated from the structure change of PDEA hydrogel component of the films with temperature; the fructose-sensitive property was ascribed to the structure change of the films induced by the complexation between the PBA constituent and the sugar. This smart system could be used as a 3-input logic network composed of enabled OR (EnOR) gates in chemical or biomolecular computing by combining the multiresponsive property of the films and the amplification effect of bioelectrocatalysis and demonstrated the potential perspective for fabricating novel multiswitchable electrochemical biosensors and bioelectronic devices.