Pairing Dual Hetero Single Atoms Co-Cu Centers to Reduce H2o2 for High-Performance Nanozyme Sensor

Abstract

Dual hetero paired single atomic catalyst (DAC, CoCu@CN) was one-pot synthesized by a facile green method and applied as a nanozyme for the detection of H2O2. Both experimental results and theoretical calculations discover that the hetero-paired DAC realizes stronger adsorption energy and a bridge adsorption of H2O2 for simultaneous 2-electron transfer, thereby offering much higher electrocatalytic activity and larger catalytic current than that of single Co atom and single Cu catalyst alone toward H2O2 reduction. The CoCu@CN H2O2 sensor demonstrates a wide linear detection range (0.654-7379.454 μM) and low limit of detection (LOD) of H2O2 (0.047 μM), and is used successfully to in-site detect intracellular H2O2 released from living cells, ensuring its practical applications in life science and medical diagnosis. This work not only discloses a scientific insight for the enhancement mechanism of the dual single heteroatomic catalyst, but also demonstrates an avenue to synthesize more efficient dual single heteroatomic catalyst for potential broad applications in energy conversion and/or sensing applications.

Keywords: hydrogen peroxide reduction, atomic catalysis, Dual hetero single atomic catalyst, single atom nanozyme, single-atom catalysis mechanism