Objective
Formaldehyde determination is essential in chemical industry, for some biotechnological processes and environmental control. There is a number of chemical and physico-chemical methods for formaldehyde assays, however, they have some shortcomings. At the same time, there is a pressing need for specific, simple and cheap analytical methods for formaldehyde monitoring in Ukraine and other countries. This project is aimed at the development of such methods, namely enzymatic kits and enzyme biosensors with given characteristics. Alcohol oxidase from methylotrophic yeasts is chosen as a biological component for analytical systems proposed. This enzyme does not require any external cofactors, has high activity at 40-500C, is rather stable, and its catalytic activity only slightly depends on pH in the range of 6 to 10. Alcohol oxidase may be used for formaldehyde detection, since, besides primary alcohols, it can oxidise formaldehyde with generation of formic acid and hydrogen peroxide.
This reaction will be used in the project to develop two main techniques for formaldehyde assay: a) enzymatic kits; b) biosensor systems. The enzymatic kit is to be designed by coupling the reaction of formaldehyde oxidation with peroxidative conversion of a chromogen to a dye: Formaldehyde specific biosensors will be created on the basis of: a) pH-sensitive field effect transistors; b) conductometric interdigitated electrodes ; c) amperometric 02- or H2O2 electrodes.
All these biosensor variants will be optimised relative to their working parameters, and the best is planned to be proposed for commercialisation. The appearance of effective monitoring systems for detection of formaldehyde will give the valuable information for environmental protection to take proper measures. The elaboration of such analytical systems will facilitate the control of new goods production where formaldehyde is used. Besides, the proposed enzymatic oxidation of formaldehyde seems to be useful as a basis for development of the enzymatic detoxification systems for removing formaldehyde from indoor air.
Topic(s)
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69131 lly Cedex
France