Repartition effect of aromatic polyaniline coatings on the separation of bioactive peptides in capillary electrophoresis

Polyaniline and Polyaniline-Based Materials as Sorbents in Solid-Phase Extraction Techniques

Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the best known and widely studied conducting polymers with multiple applications and unique physicochemical properties. Due to its porous structure and relatively high surface area as well as the affinity toward many analytes related to the ability to establish different types of interactions, PANI has a great potential as a sorbent in sample pretreatment before instrumental analyses. This study provides an overview of the applications of polyaniline and polyaniline composites as sorbents in sample preparation techniques based on solid-phase extraction, including conventional solid-phase extraction (SPE) and its modifications, solid-phase microextraction (SPME), dispersive solid-phase extraction (dSPE), magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) and stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE). The utility of PANI-based sorbents in chromatography was also summarized. It has been shown that polyaniline is willingly combined with other components and PANI-based materials may be formed in a variety of shapes. Polyaniline alone and PANI-based composites were successfully applied for sample preparation before determination of various analytes, both metal ions and organic compounds, in different matrices such as environmental samples, food, human plasma, urine, and blood.

Development and characterisation of switchable polyaniline-functionalised flow-through capillary monoliths

Polymer monoliths were prepared in capillary format (250 μm i.d.) and used as solid supports for the immobilisation of the conducting polymer polyaniline (PANI).

Electrophoretic analysis of cations using large-volume sample stacking with an electroosmotic flow pump using capillaries coated with neutral and cationic polymers

To realize the high-performance and simple-operation analysis of cationic compounds in capillary electrophoresis, we investigated large-volume sample stacking with an electroosmotic flow pump (LVSEP) using capillaries with hydrophilic and weakly cationic inner surface. Three capillary modification methods were employed: thermally passivated physical coating with polymer mixture of poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(allylamine); covalent modification with random copolymer of acryl amide and 3-(methacryloylamino)propyltrimethylammonium chloride; easily preparable physical coating with dimethyldioctadecylammonium bromide and polyoxyethylene stearate. In these capillaries, the electroosmotic flow (EOF) was well suppressed in the high ionic strength (I) electrolyte under the acidic and basic pH, whereas the EOF was enhanced in the low I electrolyte, indicating a suitable EOF property for the rapid LVSEP and following separation. In the LVSEP-capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) analyses of benzylamine and 1-naphthylethylamine, up to 550-fold sensitivity increases were successfully obtained in the three capillaries without significantly reducing the repeatability and resolution. LVSEP-cyclodextrin-modified CZE of chlorpheniramine and brompheniramine was also carried out, resulting in up to 380-fold sensitivity enhancement with keeping the baseline separation for the enantiomers. Finally, we performed the LVSEP-CZE analysis of basic proteins, where up to 100-fold sensitivity increases were achieved, but a peak broadening was observed due to the sample adsorption in the low I sample matrix.

Fluorinated ethylenepropylene copolymer as a potential capillary material in CE

In this work, a new generation UV-transparent polymer, fluorinated ethylenepropylene copolymer (FEP) exhibiting a low degree of crystallinity, extruded in dimensions similar to the most commonly used CE capillaries of approximately 80 mum id and about 360 mum od was investigated for its use as a CE capillary. FEP is transparent down to the low-UV region, and as fluorinated polymers in general are good electrical insulators and exhibit reasonable heat conductivity, it has considerable potential as a material for electrodriven analysis in capillary or microchip formats. The FEP capillary has been characterised with regard to some important aspects for its use as a CE capillary, including its profile of EOF versus pH, as well as procedures for manipulating EOF by coating the inner capillary wall with various semipermanent and dynamic layers. The FEP capillaries were tested and compared with fused-silica capillary for the separation of inorganic and small organic ions using conditions involving direct and indirect detection in the low-UV region. Finally, advantages of the use of the FEP capillary for simultaneous detection of a mixture containing nine inorganic cations and anions using indirect photometric detection with a movable light-emitting diode (LED) detector and a novel electrolyte are demonstrated.

Ordered mesoporous polyaniline film as a new matrix for enzyme immobilization and biosensor construction

Ordered mesoporous polyaniline film has been fabricated by electrodepositing from the hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystalline (LCC). Horseradish peroxidase (HRP), as a symbol biomolecule, was successfully immobilized on the film to construct a new kind of hydrogen peroxide biosensor. The biosensor combined the advantages of the good conductivity of polyaniline and the higher surface area of the ordered mesoporous film. Polyaniline could be served as a wire to relay electron between HRP and the electrode. The high surface area of the film supplied more sites for HRP immobilization, therefore increased the catalytic activity of the biosensor. The ordered mesoporous character of the film increased the rate of mass transport, which resulted in the improvement of sensor response and linearity. The biosensor displayed excellent electrocatalytic response to the detection of H2O2 in a concentration range from 1.0 microM to 2.0 mM with a detection limit of 0.63 microM. Good reproducibility, stability, high precision, wide linearity and low detection limit were assessed for the biosensor.

Properties of poly-aminophenylboronate coatings in capillary electrophoresis for the selective separation of diastereoisomers and glycoproteins

The polymerisation of 3-aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) in aqueous environment has been used for the open tubular modification of capillary electrophoresis (CE) capillaries. Being poly-APBA endowed with boronic acid, aromatic rings and secondary amines groups, it posses a variety of functional groups affecting selectivity. Diastereoisomers (e.g. ascorbic and isoascorbic acid) and proteins (e.g. haemoglobins) were successfully separated onto poly-APBA column, by means of a combination of electrophoresis and open tubular electrochromatography. The mechanism of selection was investigated: results indicate an interplay between enhancing or silencing the contribution of the protonable functionalities (amino groups, boronic acid). The properties of APBA polymer coating make it attractive for CE separation and for further application in affinity separations and chip technologies.

Surface functionalization of porous polypropylene membranes with polyaniline for protein immobilization

Commercial porous polypropylene membranes were chemically modified with polyaniline (PANI) using ammonium persulfate as the oxidizer. The influence of polymerization conditions on the membrane properties was studied by adsorption analysis and membrane permeability. The PANI-coated polypropylene (PANI/PP) membranes possessed high affinity toward the proteins, which can be immobilized onto the membrane surface through physical adsorption or covalent immobilization. The quantity of immobilized horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and its activity depended on the quantity and quality (oxidation level) of PANI. The storage conditions for PANI/PP membranes containing immobilized HRP were studied. HRP immobilized on the PANI/PP membrane was shown to retain 70% of its activity after 3-month storage at +5 degrees C, suggesting that this material can be used for practical application, such as in bioreactors as enzyme membranes.