Indium tin oxide-coated optical fiber tips for affinity electropolymerization

We demonstrate herein that it is possible to create surface-conductive fiber optics, upon which may be electropolymerized a biotinylated polypyrrole thin film, which may then be used to affinity coat the fiber with recognition probes. This fiberoptic electroconductive surface modification is done by the deposition of a thin layer of indium tin oxide. Thereafter, biotin–pyrrole monomers are electropolymerized onto the conductive metal oxide surface. We were able to demonstrate the presence of an electropolymerized polypyrrole–biotin film by allowing horseradish-peroxidase-labeled avidin to link to it and thereafter exposing it to luminol in order to obtain a chemiluminescence radiation.