Development of a nanocomposite system and its application in biosensors construction

The present work describes the development of a nanocomposite system and its application in construction of a new amperometric biosensor applied in the determination of total polyphenolic content from propolis extracts. The nanocomposite system was based on covalent immobilization of laccase on functionalized indium tin oxide nanoparticles and it was morphologically and structural characterized. The casting of the developed nanocomposite system on the surface of a screen-printed electrode was used for biosensor fabrication. The analytical performance characteristics of the settled biosensor were determined for rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid and catechol (as laccase specific substrate). The linearity was obtained in the range of 1.06x10(-6) - 1.50x10(-5) mol L-1 for rosmarinic acid, 1.90x10(-7) - 2.80x10(-6) mol L-1 for caffeic acid and 1.66x10(-6) - 7.00x10(-6) mol L-1 for catechol. A good sensitivity of amperometric biosensor 141.15 nA A mu mol(-1) L-1 and fair detection limit 7.08x10(-8) mol L-1 were obtained for caffeic acid. The results obtained for polyphenolic content of propolis extracts were compared with the chromatographic data obtained by liquid-chromatography with diode array detection.