Bioelectrochemical systems with oleylamine-stabilized gold nanostructures and horseradish peroxidase for hydrogen peroxide sensor

Abstract This paper describes ultrathin gold nanowires (NWs) and nanoparticles (NPs) prepared by oleylamine (OA) synthesis and their assembly with horseradish peroxidase enzyme (HRP) for bioelectrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide for the first time. The immobilization of oxidoreductase enzyme HRP on the electrodes modified with OA gold nanostructures (OANSs) is discussed. The HRP-sensor characteristics, namely sensitivity, working concentration range, sensor-to-sensor and measurement-to-measurement reproducibility as well as long-term stability, are improved significantly compared to the planar thin-film sensors by using OANSs. The thin-film gold electrodes modified with OANWs and OANPs exhibit a catalytic activity towards oxidation of hydrogen peroxide with a working concentration range from 20 µM to 500 µM, a sensitivity of 0.031 A M −1  cm −2 (RSD 0.046) and 0.027 A M −1  cm −2 (RSD 0.045), and a detection limit of 5 µM and 8 µM, respectively (RSD near the detection limits was 9–12%). Our study shows that ultrathin gold nanowires and nanoparticles prepared by oleylamine synthesis are prospective materials to assemble biomolecules into functional nanoarchitectures for enzyme-based bioelectrochemical sensors, metalloprotein bioelectronics, and energy research.