Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 919-927.doi: 10.1007/s40242-022-2114-x

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Cu/CuO-Graphene Foam with Laccase-like Activity for Identification of Phenolic Compounds and Detection of Epinephrine

ZHU Junlun, CUI Qian, WEN Wei, ZHANG Xiuhua, WANG Shengfu   

  1. Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, P. R. China
  • Received:2022-03-26 Revised:2022-04-13 Online:2022-08-01 Published:2022-07-01
  • Contact: WANG Shengfu;WEN Wei E-mail:wangsf@hubu.edu.cn;wenwei@hubu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.22076041, 22076042) and the Key Science Research Plan of Department of Education in Hubei Province, China(No.D20201005).

Abstract: Although great progress has been made in the advancement of nanozymes, most of the studies focus on mimicking peroxidase, oxidase, and catalase, while relatively few studies are used to mimic laccase. However, the use of nanomaterials to mimic laccase activity will have great potential in environmental and industrial catalysis. Herein, Cu/CuO-graphene foam with laccase-like activity was designed for the identification of phenolic compounds and the detection of epinephrine. In a typical experiment, the formation mechanism of Cu/CuO-graphene foam was investigated during the pyrolysis process by thermogravimetric-mass spectrometry. As a laccase mimic, Cu/CuO-graphene foam exhibited excellent catalytic activity with a Michaelis-Menten constant and a maximum initial velocity of 0.17 mmol/L and 0.012 mmol∙L-1∙s-1, respectively. Based on this principle, Cu/CuO-graphene foam nanozyme could differentially catalyze phenolic compounds and 4-aminoantipyrine for simultaneous identification of phenolic compounds. Furthermore, a colorimetric sensing platform was fabricated for the quantitative determination of epinephrine, showing linear responses to epinephrine in the range of 3 mg/mL to 20 mg/mL with the detection limit of 0.2 mg/mL. The proposed Cu/CuO-graphene foam nanozyme could be applied for the identification of phenolic compounds and the detection of epinephrine, showing great potential applications for environmental monitoring, biomedical sensing, and food detection fields.

Key words: Nanozyme, Laccase-like activity, Cu/CuO-graphene foam, Phenolic compound, Epinephrine