A biosensor for ferric ion.

A new biosensor for monitoring iron has been developed. The active solid phase is pyoverdin, a natural fluorescent pigment biosynthesized by Pseudomonas fluorescens immobilized on controlled pore glass (CPG) and packed in a quartz flow-through cell. The biosensor is very selective for iron(III) and can be easily regenerated in about 2 min by passing 1M HCl through the cell. The optimum conditions and analytical characteristics (detection limit, precision and linear range) for the new sensor in solution (DL = 10 ng/ml) and in immobilized form (DL = 3 ng/ml) are reported. The biosensor has good stability and can be used continuously over a period for at least 3 months (over 1000 determinations). The sensor was successfully applied to determine iron in different water samples. There were no significant differences between the new method and the Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) reference method at the 95% confidence level.