Label free aptasensor for ochratoxin A detection using polythiophene-3-carboxylic acid

This work demonstrates the development of electrochemical aptasensor using ochratoxin A (OTA) aptamers. Different aptamer coupling strategies were tested using polythiophene-carboxylic acid (PT3C) and polypyrrole-3-carboxylic acid (PP3C). The best sensitivity was recorded by polythiophene-3-carboxylic acid (PT3C) on screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) to attain the direct detection of OTA. The quantification of OTA was achieved by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A good dynamic range 0.125-2.5 ng ml^-1 was obtained for OTA with limit of detection (LOD) 0.125 ng ml^-1 and Limit of quantification (LOQ) 0.3 ng ml^-1 respectively. The good reproducibility was recorded with RSD% of 3.68. The obtained straight line equation was y = 0.4061 × + 1.03, r = 0.99. For real sample applications, the developed aptasensors were demonstrated in coffee samples. The aptasensor displayed good recovery values in the range 88-89%, thus exhibited the effectiveness of proposed aptasensor for such complex matrices.