CHEMICAL ENGINEERINGTRANSACTIONS VOL. 43, 2015 A publicationof The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Chief Editors:SauroPierucci, JiříJ. Klemeš Copyright © 2015, AIDIC ServiziS.r.l., I SBN 978-88-95608-34-1; I SSN 2283-9216 Optimization of Method of Preparing Carbon Paste Electrode Alfredo J. T. Bosco *a , Eliana M. Alhadeff a , Francisca das C. S. S. Mihos a , Lídia Yokoyama a , Victor M. Santos b , Ninoska I. Bojorge Ramirez b a Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Centro de Tecnologia. Escola de Química. Departamento de Engenharia Bioquímica - Avenida Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149 - Cidade Universitária, 21941-909 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. b Universidade Federal Fluminense. Departamento de Engenharia Química e Petróleo - Rua Passo da Pátria, 156 - Campus da Praia Vermelha, São Domingos, 24210-310 - Niterói, RJ, Brasil. alfredobosco@eq.ufrj.br This work propose the optimization of the preparation of electrode based on carbon paste for application to amperometric biosensor. The method is based on the experimental design of mixtures with graphite, polyaniline and epoxy resin acting as system components and electrical conductivity as the response variable. The materials were characterized such as how much its electrical conductivity and cyclic voltammetry. The experimental design indicated that the higher conductivity electrode was made of a mixture of 25% (wt/wt) graphite 40% (wt/wt) of polyaniline and 35% (wt/wt) of epoxy resin. The addition of silver nanoparticles favoring an increase of 9.71% in the anodic peak current and 32.35% in the peak cathode current. 1. Introduction The selectivity of an electrochemical biosensor is dependent on the recognition element, the host matrix and the interaction between them (Freire et al., 2003, Mihos et al., 2014). The polymer-metal composite nanoparticles are widely used in biological sensors, since they have suitable characteristics to achieve the stability and sensitivity of these devices (Hong et al., 2010; Luo et al., 2006). The metal nanoparticles act as a redox mediator biomolecules and polymers act as a selective adsorbent for these devices (Prakash et al., 2013). The manufacture of electrodes chemically modified with AgNPs has increased considerably. Since silver has lower costs than gold, shows excellent catalytic activity, good electrical and thermal conductivity, its application in electroanalysis is very favorable acting as pre-concentrators species of interest and/or mediating redox reactions (Oliveira, 2012). Thus further studies Chairside fabrication transducers as the folder base and the insertion of carbon and silver nanoparticles are relevant in order to obtain transducers that are more sensitive. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1 Experimental design The experimental design of mixture was developed in order to evaluate the composite components to achieve higher conductivity by using the software Statistica® 8.0. The components used in preparing the composite of graphite powder were biosensor matrix, polyaniline (Aldrich) and epoxy resin and the response variable is the electrical conductivity (S/mm), with a percentages of graphite powder (FlukaChemie AG, USA) mixture ranging from 0 to 30% (wt/wt), polyaniline ranging from 30 to 60% (wt/wt) and epoxy resin ranging from 25 to 55% (wt/wt). 2.2 Preparation of the tablets and conductivity measurements Once the proportions defined by the planning, the composites were prepared by homogenization with a mortar and pestle and made into tablet form. It were added 0.25g of each mixture on a paper film, and pressed DOI: 10.3303/CET1543408 Please cite this article as: Bosco A.T., Alhadeff E.M., Mihos F.C.S.S., Mello Santos V., Bojorge-Ramirez N., 2015, Optimization of the method of preparing carbon paste electrode, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 43, 2443-2448 DOI: 10.3303/CET1543408 DOI: 10.3303/CET1543408 Please cite this article as: Bosco A.T., Alhadeff E.M., Mihos F.C.S.S., Mello Santos V., Bojorge-Ramirez N., 2015, Optimization of the method of preparing carbon paste electrode, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 43, 2443-2448 DOI: 10.3303/CET1543408 2443