Fabrication and optimisation of optical biosensor using alcohol oxidase enzyme to evaluate detection of formaldehyde

In this study, a new and simple biosensor base on alcohol oxidase (AOX)-enzyme for detecting formaldehyde in aqueous solutions has been successfully fabricated. The alcohol oxidase (AOX) enzyme was immobilized on poly-n-butyl acrylic-co-N-acryloxysuccinimide (nBA-NAS) membrane containing chromoionophore. The chemical reaction between AOX and formaldehyde generates a colour change of chromoionophore detected by optical absorbance measured in UV Vis. This paper focuses on the concentration optimization of buffer phosphate solution, response time, the quantity of enzyme and the measurement of the detection range of biosensors. The result shows that the optimum concentration and pH of buffer phosphate solution is 0.05 M and pH 7, respectively. The optimum response time is 3 min, the optimum unit of enzyme for biosensor is 1 unit/sample and the detection range of biosensor is 0.264 mM with R2 = 0.9421.