Copper metal–organic polyhedra nanorods with high intrinsic peroxidase-like activity at physiological pH for bio-sensing

Abstract

Enzyme-mimicking nanomaterials (nanozymes) have been used to catalyze enzyme-like reactions for various applications. Despite these favorable properties, peroxidase-mimicking nanozymes suffer from the optimum reaction occurring in acidic solutions, which greatly limits their applications in biological systems. Herein, we demonstrate that copper Metal–Organic Polyhedra (Cu-MOP) nanorods exhibit high peroxidase-mimicking activity at a physiological pH value. Cu-MOP nanorods catalyze the generation of strong chemiluminescence signals in the presence of luminol/H₂O₂ and the oxidation of 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonate acid) (ABTS) by H₂O₂ produces a green color reaction in a neutral pH solution. The Cu-MOP nanorod driven generation of color reactions is applied to develop a H₂O₂ sensor, and furthermore is implemented to develop a glucose detection platform.