Synthesis and electrochemical characterisation of processable polypyrrole boronic acid derivatives for carbohydrate binding

Conducting polymers have been widely explored for many different purposes including sensing. In thisthesis the conducive properties of pyrrole and the carbohydrate binding properties of boronic acid iscombined to make a reagent-free detector for carbohydrates. The polymer is manufactured in form ofparticles in the μm scale to create a porous film which has a high surface to volume ratio.The material was characterised and the binding properties were evaluated for galactose and glucose.Proof of binding was found via both electrochemical methods and QCM-D. A correlation between R2 value and concentration of substrate was found which enables measurement of concentration of carbohydratesin unknown samples