Dual potentiometric and UV/Vis spectrophotometric disposable sensors with dispersion cast polyaniline.

Simple conducting polymer–polyaniline-based sensors/biosensors, working either in potentiometric or UV/Vis spectrophotometric mode, are proposed. Disposable sensors were produced by coating polyaniline layers, cast from aqueous dispersion of the polymer nanoparticles, on a transparent plastic polyacetate foil. In the potentiometric mode, polyaniline layers are sensitive to a number of metal cations, while in UV/Vis mode, changes of absorbance were recorded only in case of a chemical reaction of cations with the polymer. Pronounced sensitivity of tested sensors to ammonia was used for potentiometric/spectrophotometric biosensing purposes studied on a model example of urease-based sensors of urea. The highest sensitivity and reproducibility of such sensors were observed in urea concentration ranging from 1 to 10 mM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]