Tailoring the peroxidase-like properties of Mo atom nanoclusters/N-MXene nanozymes for sensitive colorimetric detection of glutathione

• Published in: Talanta (Oxford) 2024-10, Vol.278, p.126485, Article 126485
• Main Authors: Huang, Juan, Wu, Pengfei, Qin, Yuanlong, Zhang, Jiayue, Wang, Wenjing, Yi, Xueqian, Wang, Guo, Leng, Yumin, Chen, Zhengbo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysis; Colorimetry - methods; Glutathione - analysis; Glutathione - chemistry; Glutathione sensing; Kinetics; Mo atom nanocluster; Molybdenum - chemistry; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nitrogen - chemistry; Nitrogen-doped Mxene; Peroxidase - chemistry; Peroxidase-mimic activity
• ISSN: 0039-9140; 1873-3573; 1873-3573
• DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.126485

Although nanozyme engineering has made tremendous progress, there is a huge gap between them and natural enzymes due to the enormous challenge of precisely adjusting the geometric and electronic structure of active sites. Considering that intentionally adjusting the metal-carrier interactions may bring the promising catalytic activity, in this work, a novel Mo atom nanocluster is successfully synthesized using nitrogen-doped Mxene (MoACs/N-MXene) nanozymes as carriers. The constructed MoACs/N-MXene displays excellent peroxidase-like catalytic activity and kinetics, outweighing its N-MXene and Mo nanoparticles (NPs)-MXene references and natural horse radish peroxidase. This work not only reports a successful example of MoACs/N-MXene nanozyme as a guide for achieving peroxidase-mimic performance of nanozymes for colorimetric glutathione sensing at 0.29 μM, but also expands the application prospects of two-dimensional MXene nanosheets by reasonably introducing metal atomic clusters and nonmetal atom doping and exploring related nanozyme properties. [Display omitted] •We design Mo atom nanoclusters supported by N-doped Mxene peroxidase-like nanozyme.•We construct a colorimetric nanozyme sensor based on MoACs/N–Ti3C2Tx for colorimetric GSH sensing.•DFT theoretical results reveal that N-doping enhances the peroxidase-like catalytic activity of MoACs/Ti3C2Tx.•GSH levels in cell lysate of Hep-2 cells were analyzed with our MoACs/N-MXene nanozyme sensor.