A label-free photoelectrochemical cocaine aptasensor based on an electropolymerized ruthenium-intercalator complex

Abstract A photoelectrode was designed by electrodeposition of a pyrrole monomer modified with a polypyridyl Ru(II) complex bearing benzo[i]dipyrido-[3,2-a:2′.3′-c]phenazine (dppn) ligand. Owing to the intercalating properties of these immobilized complexes towards DNA double helix, cocaine aptamer was immobilized on the modified electrodes thanks to its stem-loop configuration in order to design a photoelectrochemical cocaine aptasensor. Especially using a double-fragment aptamer strategy, the binding of cocaine and the formation of the aptamer/cocaine complex was successfully observed and modeled by a Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm, giving access to an apparent dissociation constant K d of 3.8 mmol L −1 . The photoelectrochemical aptasensor exhibits a LOD of 10 nmol L −1 and linear range of 1 10 −8 –5 10 −4  mol L −1 .