Ultralow Ru Single Atoms Confined in Cerium Oxide Nanoglues for Highly‐Sensitive and Robust H2O2‐Related Biocatalytic Diagnosis

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Germany), 2023-12, Vol.19 (52), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Yuan, Minjia, Li, Qian, Wu, Zihe, Zhu, Huang, Gao, Yang, Zhou, Mi, Luo, Xianglin, Wang, Mao, Cheng, Chong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biocatalysts; biocatalytic diagnosis; Biosensors; Cascade chemical reactions; Catalytic activity; cerium oxide; Cerium oxides; Colorimetry; Cysteine; Diagnosis; Electronic structure; Electrons; Glucose; Hydrogen peroxide; Noble metals; Peroxidase; peroxidase‐mimetics; Robustness; Ruthenium; single atom catalysts; Stability; Structural analysis; Uric acid
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202304532

Exploring highly efficient, portable, and robust biocatalysts is a great challenge in colorimetric biosensors. To overcome the challenging states in creating single‐atom biocatalysts, such as insufficient activity and stability, here, this work has engineered a unique CeO2 support as nanoglue to tightly anchor the Ru single‐atom sites (CeO2‐Ru) with strong electronic coupling for achieving highly sensitive and robust H2O2‐related biocatalytic diagnosis. The morphology and chemical/electronic structure analysis demonstrates that the Ru atoms are well‐dispersed on CeO2 surface to form high‐density active sites. Benefiting from the unique structure, the prepared CeO2‐Ru exhibits outstanding peroxidase (POD) like catalytic activity and selectivity to H2O2. Steady‐state kinetic study results show that the CeO2‐Ru presents the highest Vmax and turnover number than the state‐of‐the‐art POD‐like biocatalysts. Consequently, the CeO2‐Ru discloses a high efficiency, good selectivity, and robust stability in the colorimetric detection of L‐cysteine, glucose, and uric acid. Notably, the limit of detection (LOD) can reach 0.176 × 10−3 m for the L‐cysteine, 0.095 × 10−3 m for the glucose, and 0.088 × 10−3 m for the uric acid via cascade reaction. This work suggests that the proposed unique CeO2 nanoglue will offer a new path to create single‐atom noble metal biocatalysts and take a step closer to future biotherapeutic and biocatalytic applications. A unique CeO2 nanoglue‐supported Ru single‐atom biocatalyst (CeO2‐Ru) has been synthesized for highly sensitive and robust H2O2‐related biocatalytic diagnosis. Benefiting from the outstanding peroxidase‐like activities and selectivity to H2O2, the CeO2‐Ru discloses a high efficiency, good selectivity, and robust stability in the colorimetric detection of L‐cysteine, glucose, and uric acid, thus taking a step closer to future biosensing and biocatalytic applications.