Immobilization of DNA on carbon fiber microelectrodes by using overoxidized polypyrrole template for selective detection of dopamine and epinephrine in the presence of high concentrations of ascorbic acid and uric acid.

The overoxidized polypyrrole (PPyox) film as a template for DNA immobilization has been demonstrated in this paper. The DNA molecules inserted into the micropores of the ultrathin PPyox matrix under the driving forces of an electric field and were firmly immobilized on the carbon fiber electrode (CFE). Such a DNA-PPyox biocomposite layer exhibited more effective rejection of anionic ascorbate (AA) and uric acid (UA) and more preferential collection of the cationic dopamine (DA) and epinephrine (EP) than pure PPyox and DNA coatings. The DPV peak currents increased linearly with increasing DA and EP concentrations in the range of 3.0 x 10(-7) to 1.0 x 10(-5) M and 5.0 x 10(-7) to 2.0 x 10(-5) M with the lowest detected concentrations of 8.0 x 10(-8) M and 6.0 x 10(-8) M, respectively. The electrochemical signal of AA could be totally suppressed under a concentration of 20 mM and beyond this concentration, the overlapped responses of AA, DA/EP and UA could be resolved into three well-defined voltammetric peaks. The selectivity factors k(DA/AA) and k(EP/AA) were about 5000 and 2000 for an equal concentration in the presence of 0.5 mM UA. The properties of the biocomposite film have been characterized by atomic force microscopy and electrochemical investigations.