Electrocatalytic sulfite biosensor with human sulfite oxidase co-immobilized with cytochrome c in a polyelectrolyte-containing multilayer

An efficient electrocatalytic biosensor for sulfite detection was developed by co-immobilizing sulfite oxidase and cytochrome c with polyaniline sulfonic acid in a layer-by-layer assembly. QCM, UV-Vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry revealed increasing loading of electrochemically active protein with the formation of multilayers. The sensor operates reagentless at low working potential. A catalytic oxidation current was detected in the presence of sulfite at the modified gold electrode, polarized at +0.1 V (vs. Ag/AgCl 1 M KCl). The stability of the biosensor performance was characterized and optimized. A 17-bilayer electrode has a linear range between 1 and 60 microM sulfite with a sensitivity of 2.19 mA M(-1) sulfite and a response time of 2 min. The electrode retained a stable response for 3 days with a serial reproducibility of 3.8% and lost 20% of sensitivity after 5 days of operation. It is possible to store the sensor in a dry state for more than 2 months. The multilayer electrode was used for determination of sulfite in unspiked and spiked samples of red and white wine. The recovery and the specificity of the signals were evaluated for each sample.