Polypyrrole Nanoparticle Thin Films as Biosensors

The October 7, 2008 issue of the journal Langmuir features an article by Associate Professor Xiangqun Zeng of the Department of Chemistry. Zeng's laboratory focuses on developing biosensors for detection of biologically and medically important molecules. Her paper Controlled Electrochemical Synthesis of Polypyrrole Nanoparticle Thin Film and Its Redox Transition to a Highly Conductive and Stable Polypyrrole Variant (Volume 24, pages 11076–11081) examines how to produce stable films of the conducting polymer Polypyrrole (PPY), a material known to have much promise as a coating for medical devices or in biosensors. The paper concludes that "the reversible doping and undoping of asparagine during redox switching shows great potential of these PPY nanoparticle films as biological membranes for a broad range of biological applications." The first author of the paper, Richard West, recently obtained a Master of Science degree in Chemistry under Zeng's supervision.