A sensor array based on the boronic acid functional nanozyme for the enhanced sensing of tea polyphenols and raw...

Tea polyphenols are polyphenolic substances rich in catechol structures, therefore the nanozymes with enhanced catechol oxidase-like activity should be more suitable for the enhanced sensing of tea polyphenol, compared to other nanozymes with polyphenol oxidase-like activity. In this work, we prepared the nanozyme DBA-Cu with boronic acid structure with the enhanced ability for the sensing of tea polyphenols. It was found that the boric acid structure on the nanozyme was the key to enhance its catechol binding ability and catalytic rate. Based on the enhanced ability for the sensing of tea polyphenols as well as the fluorescence properties of DBA-Cu, a nanozyme-based sensor array was constructed for recognizing tea polyphenols and raw Pu-erh, which has a wide range of applications in different environments with rich catechol structures.