Utilising the Nanozymatic Activity of Copper-Functionalised Mesoporous C N for Sensing Biomolecules.

Designing unique nanomaterials for the selective sensing of biomolecules is of significant interest in the field of nanobiotechnology. In this work, we demonstrated the synthesis of ordered Cu nanoparticle-functionalised mesoporous C N that has unique peroxidase-like nanozymatic activity for the ultrasensitive and selective detection of glucose and glutathione. A nano hard-templating technique together with the in-situ polymerisation and self-assembly of Cu and high N-containing CN precursor was adopted to introduce mesoporosity as well as high N and Cu content in mesoporous C N . Due to the ordered structure and highly dispersed Cu in the mesoporous C N , a large enhancement of the peroxidase mimetic activity in the oxidation of a redox dye in the presence of hydrogen peroxide could be obtained. Additionally, the optimised Cu-functionalised mesoporous C N exhibited excellent sensitivity to glutathione with a low detection limit of 2.0 ppm. The strong peroxidase activity of the Cu-functionalised mesoporous C N was also effectively used for the sensing of glucose with a detection limit of 0.4 mM through glucose oxidation with glucose oxidase. This unique Cu-functionalised mesoporous C N has the potential for detecting various molecules in the environment as well as for next-generation glucose and glutathione diagnostic devices.