Polypyrrole Based Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Platform for Klebsiella pneumonia Detection

The present work describes the synthesis of molecular imprinting polymer (MIP) and electrochemical sensing of Klebsiella pneumonia (K. pneumonia) bacteria by electrochemical technique. K. pneumonia has far reached ill effects on the human body, hence it is essential to monitor its levels. A MIP platform based on polypyrrole (PPy) was developed for electrochemical sensing of K. pneumonia to monitor its levels. The developed sensor has good sensitivity (3 μA ml CFU-cm−2), a low limit of detection (LOD) of 1.352 CFU ml−1 in the linear detection range of 1 to 105 CFU per ml. The molecular imprinting was carried out by polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of K. pneumonia and then removed the bacteria by ultrasonication to obtain the MIP. The fabrication of electrodes is done by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of MIP onto the hydrolyzed ITO-coated glass surface. The detection was done by the electrochemical differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique. The synthesized final product is then characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) technique to understand its structure and confirm the successful synthesis of the desired MIP. The selectivity studies were performed against two other bacteria and different ions that are present in healthy human urine. To check the applicability in real sample studies, spiked urine samples were used.