Self-assembled amphiphilic bilayers of surfactant Brij-52 on gold electrodes

The self-assembling of the uncharged nonionic surfractant Brij-52 on gold e lectrodes is reported. The resulting amphiphilic layers are characterized b y means of impedance spectroscopy. Self-assembled Brij-52 layers have unifo rm structure and contain only a minor number of defects. The capacitance of optimal Brij-52 membrane calculated from the whole impedance spectrum rath er than at certain frequency, is 1.0 +/- 0.4 mu Phi cm(-2), which is close to the capacitance of the lipid bilayer which separates the two aqueous pha ses, indicating that the self-assembling of Brij-52 resulted in formation o f its bilayer on the gold electrode surface. The uniform bilayers of Brij-5 2 on gold support are stable, in contrast to lipids, which provide the oppo rtunity of their application for analytical purposes. The possibility of us ing supported Brij-52 layers in affinity sensors is discussed.