Enzymatic microreactors for the determination of ethanol by an automatic sequential injection analysis system.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Biotechnology
• Enzyme Immobilization

Background:

• Accurate ethanol determination is crucial for quality control in alcoholic beverages and fermentation processes.
• Traditional methods like gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) can be time-consuming and require specialized equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and validate a novel sequential injection analysis (SIA) system for rapid and precise ethanol quantification.
• To utilize immobilized enzymes within microreactors for enhanced analytical performance.

Main Methods:

• Enzymatic microreactors were developed by immobilizing alcohol oxidase and horseradish peroxidase on glass aminopropyl beads.
• These microreactors were integrated into a sequential injection analysis system.
• The system was optimized for ethanol detection within a specific concentration range (0.005-0.04 g/L).

Main Results:

• The developed SIA system achieved a linear ethanol range of 0.005-0.04 g/L with a low relative standard deviation of +/- 0.6%.
• A throughput of seven analyses per hour was obtained with a 120-second stop-flow time.
• The system demonstrated good performance in analyzing real-world samples, including alcoholic beverages and fermentation broths.

Conclusions:

• The designed SIA system with enzymatic microreactors provides a robust and accurate method for ethanol determination.
• The performance of this novel system is comparable to established methods like GC and HPLC.
• This approach offers a promising alternative for routine ethanol analysis in various applications.