Synthesis and electropolymerization studies of water-soluble pyrrole-ferrocene derivatives towards biochip device application

Abstract The synthesis of two new pyrrole derivatives is described. These molecules have been designed for the elaboration of performing electrochemical biochip devices by the means of conductive poly(pyrrole) electroaddressing on an electrode network. A ferrocene group has been introduced in monomer structures to serve as efficient transducer of electrochemical response of poly(pyrrole). The two monomers also bear a phosphate diester group in their structure providing an efficient solubility in water (100 mM). These water-soluble monomers appear to be well suited to a concomitant use with biomolecules such as oligonucleotides, peptides or proteins that must be immobilized on biochip plot surface. In this work, electrochemical properties of the two monomers are investigated, on both a conventional gold electrode and a graphite paste electrode biochip device.