Enzyme biosensor systems based on porous silicon photoluminescence for detection of glucose, urea and heavy metals

A phenomenon of changes in photoluminescence of porous silicon at variations in medium pH is proposed to be used as a basis for the biosensor system development. The method of conversion of a biochemical signal into an optical one is applied for direct determination of glucose and urea as well as for inhibitory analysis of heavy metal ions. Changes in the quantum yield of porous silicon photoluminescence occur at varying pH of the tested solution due to the enzyme-substrate reaction. When creating the biosensor systems, the enzymes urease and glucose oxidase (GOD) were used as a bioselective material; their optimal concentrations were experimentally determined. It was shown that the photoluminescence intensity of porous silicon increased by 1.7 times when increasing glucose concentration in the GOD-containing reaction medium from 0 to 3.0mM, and decreased by 1.45 times at the same increase in the urea concentration in the urease-containing reaction medium. The calibration curves of dependence of the biosensor system responses on the substrate concentrations are presented. It is shown that the presence of heavy metal ions (Cu(2+), Pb(2+), and Cd(2+)) in the tested solution causes an inhibition of the enzymatic reactions catalyzed by glucose oxidase and urease, which results in a restoration of the photoluminescence quantum yield of porous silicon. It is proposed to use this effect for the inhibitory analysis of heavy metal ions.