Stable and sensitive flow-through monitoring of phenol using a carbon nanotube based screen printed biosensor

A stable and sensitive biosensor for phenol detection based on a screen printed electrode modified with tyrosinase, multiwall carbon nanotubes and glutaraldehyde is designed and applied in a flow injection analytical system. The proposed carbon nanotube matrix is easy to prepare and ensures a very good entrapment environment for the enzyme, being simpler and cheaper than other reported strategies. In addition, the proposed matrix allows for a very fast operation of the enzyme, that leads to a response time of 15 s. Several parameters such as the working potential, pH of the measuring solution, biosensor response time, detection limit, linear range of response and sensitivity are studied. The obtained detection limit for phenol was 0.14 x 10-6 M. The biosensor keeps its activity during continuous FIA measurements at room temperature, showing a stable response (RSD 5%) within a two week working period at room temperature. The developed biosensor is being applied for phenol detection in seawater samples and seems to be a promising alternative for automatic control of seawater contamination. The developed detection system can be extended to other enzyme biosensors with interest for several other applications.