Breaking through the pH Limitation of Fe_1-S Nanozymes Using Component-Modulated Coupled Nanoclay

Overcoming the intrinsic low activity of most peroxidase mimics under neutral pH is crucial but still extremely challenging for the detection of disease markers in biological samples. Here, we chose nanoclay (i.e., montmorillonite K10, MK10) as a carrier to modulate the structure of Fe_1-S nanozyme components through an interfacial modulation strategy, aiming at breaking the neutral pH limitation of Fe_1-S. MK10 with abundant hydroxyl groups on its surface acts as a carrier to increase the ratio of Fe(II) and S(II-) content in surface Fe_1-S. We verify that Fe(II)-promoted surface hydroxyl radical generation and S(II-)-promoted regeneration of Fe(II) play key roles in endowing peroxidase-like activity to Fe_1-S at neutral pH. As expected, Fe_1-S/MK10 exhibited 11-fold higher V_max and 52-fold higher catalytic efficiency than bare Fe_1-S. As a proof of concept, the sensor constructed based on Fe_1-S/MK10 achieved colorimetric detection of xanthine under neutral conditions with a linear range of 5-300 μM and a limit of detection of 2.49 μM. Finally, we achieved highly sensitive detection of xanthine in serum using the constructed biosensor. Our contribution is the novel use of a nanoclay-mediated interfacial modulation strategy for boosting the peroxidase-mimicking activity and breaking the pH limitation, which contributes to the in situ detection of disease markers by nanozymes under physiological conditions.