Fe-N-C single atom nanozymes with dual enzyme-mimicking activities for colorimetric detection of hydrogen peroxide and glutathione

H2O2 and glutathione (GSH) are critical redox molecules in the organism. Abnormal levels of cellular H2O2 and GSH are closely related to some diseases. Thus, it is imperative to detect H2O2 and GSH efficiently. In this work, Fe-N-C single atom nanozymes (SANs) with both peroxidase and oxidasemimicking activities were successfully prepared with the help of formamide condensation by one-step hydrothermal method. The Fe-N-C SANs show excellent peroxidase-like activity, which possess a higher affinity for H2O2 and 3,30,5,50-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) than horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Then, based on the chromogenic reaction of TMB, a colorimetric biosensor to detect H2O2 and GSH was developed. This biosensor has the linear ranges of 10-600 mu mol/L for H2O2 with a low detection limit of 4.360 mu mol/L and 100-400 mu mol/L for GSH with a low detection limit of 78.33 mu mol/L. Besides, this colorimetric biosensor exhibited a good recovery of H2O2 and GSH in diluted human serum. Finally, the Fe-N-C SANs were encapsulated into agar gel to self-quantitatively detect GSH by naked eyes. This work provides a non-pyrolytic way to prepare SANs, which broadens the synthetic method of SANs and may promote the development of SANs for biosensor application. (c) 2022 The Chinese Ceramic Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

In this study, Fe-N-C single atom nanozymes (SANs) with peroxidase and oxidase-like activities were prepared, and a colorimetric biosensor was developed for efficient detection of H2O2 and GSH.