Fe-Based Single-Atom Nanozyme with Superior Peroxidase-Mimicking Activity for Enhanced Ultrasensitive Biosensing

Nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-mimicking characteristics, refered to as nanozymes, have become a hot research topic owing to their unique advantages of comparative low cost, high stability and large-scale preparation. Among them, Single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes), as novel nanozymes with abundant atomically dispersed active sites, have caused specific attention in the development of nanozymes for their remarkable catalytic activities, maximum atomic utilization and excellent selectivity, the homogeneous catalytic sites and clear catalytic mechanisms. Herein, a novel single-atom nanozyme based on Fe(III)-doped polydiaminopyridine nanofusiforms (Fe-PDAP SAzyme) was successfully proposed via facile oxidation polymerization strategy. With well-defined coordination structure and abundant Fe-Nx active sites similar to natural metalloproteases, the Fe-PDAP SAzyme exhibits superior peroxidase-like activity by efficiently decomposing H₂O₂ for hydroxyl radical (.OH) species formation. Based on their superior peroxidase-like activity, colorimetric biosensing of H₂O₂ and glucose in vitro was performed by using a typical 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine through a multienzyme biocatalytic cascade platform, exhibiting the superior specificity and sensitivity. This work not only provides a novel promising SAzyme-based biosensor but also paves an avenue for evaluating enzyme activity and broadens the application of other nanozyme-based biosensors in the fields of biomedical diagnosis.