J. Heyrovský's Oscillographic Polarography. Roots of Present Chronopotentiometric Analysis of Biomacromolecules

In 1941 J. Heyrovský invented Oscillographic Polarography (OP) with controlled alternating current (a.c.). The method was developed during the World War and the first commercially available instruments for OP were produced in Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the 1950’s. Such instruments offered derivative and cyclic OP curves allowing simple analysis of various compounds and stimulated the publication of hundreds of papers. Thanks to OP, electrochemical analysis of DNA started already in 1958. According to the present nomenclature, OP can be denominated as a.c. chronopotentiometry. Surprisingly, authors who later described derivative and cyclic chronopotentiometry did not consider J. Heyrovský’s OP methodology in their work. Present electrochemical studies of biomacromolecules take advantage of modern instruments for constant current chronopotentiometric stripping, allowing DNA and protein structure-sensitive analysis. Recent progress in these studies is reviewed.