OPEEs – what are they?

L. Campanella, G. Favero, M.P. Sammartino, M. Tomassetti

Department of Chemistry - University of Rome "La Sapienza" - P.le Aldo Moro, 5 - 00185 Roma ITALY

The catalytic activity of enzymes is often maintained in non-aqueous media, a possibility that is used to develop enzymatic electrodes working in organic solvent (OPEEs). Over the past few years, our research group have developed several OPEEs suitable for different applications: a catalase OPEE for the determination of hydrogen peroxide in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, a tyrosinase OPEE for polyphenol analysis in olive oil, two bi-enzymatic OPEEs for the determination of lecithin or pesticides and a superoxide dismutase OPEE for free radical determination. Also a brief review of the best known and most popular OPEEs reported in literature, is presented.