A general cation-exchange strategy for constructing hierarchical TiO2/CuInS2/CuS hybrid nanofibers to boost their peroxidase-like activity toward sensitive detection of dopamine

At present, metal sulfides are widely used as good candidates for peroxidase (POD) mimicking, while the modulation of their compositions and architectures to significantly promote the catalytic performance is still challenge. In this work, we have demonstrated a general cation-exchange route to construct hierarchical ternary TiO2/CuInS2/CuS nanofibers as POD mimics. During the fabrication process, TiO2 nanofibers are firstly used to load In2S3 nanosheets, which act as the templates to produce CuInS2 and CuS. Then the obtained hierarchical TiO2/CuInS2/CuS hybrid nanofibers exhibit excellent POD-like activity, which is much better than the control samples including bare TiO2 nanofibers, In2S3 nanosheets, TiO2/In2S3 nanofibers, and CuInS2/CuS nanosheets. Furthermore, we have developed a convenient colorimetric detection platform toward dopamine (DA) on ac-count of the superior catalytic property of TiO2/CuInS2/CuS nanofibers for POD mimicking. The remarkable ability for the sensitive biosensing property presents a promising prospect to satisfy the practical applications.

Automated summary

In this study, hierarchical ternary TiO2/CuInS2/CuS nanofibers were synthesized as peroxidase mimics by a cation-exchange route. The obtained nanofibers showed excellent peroxidase-like activity and a convenient colorimetric detection platform for dopamine was developed.