Layered Double Hydroxides:  An Attractive Material for Electrochemical Biosensor Design

Electrochemical biosensors for phenol determination were developed based on the immobilization of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) within two different clay matrixes, one anionic (layered double hydroxide, LDH) and the other cationic (Laponite). The biosensor based on the enzyme immobilized in [Zn-Al-Cl] LDH shows greater sensitivity (7807 mA M(-1) cm(-2)) and maximum current (492 microA cm(-2)). Biosensor characteristics, such as Michaelis-Menten constant, recycling constant, activation energy, and permeability highlight the advantages of LDH matrixes to immobilize PPO. It appears that LDH provides a favorable environment to PPO activity. The best PPO/[Zn-Al-Cl] configuration was used to determine five different phenol derivatives reaching extremely sensitive detection limits (< or = 1 nM).