The Most Active Oxidase-Mimicking Mn2 O3 Nanozyme for Biosensor Signal Generation.

Oxidase-mimicking nanozymes are more desirable than peroxidase-mimicking ones since H2 O2 can be omitted. However, only a few nanomaterials are known for oxidase-like activities. In this work, we compared the activity of Mn2 O3 , Mn3 O4 and MnO2 and found that Mn2 O3 had the highest oxidase activity. Interestingly, the activity of Mn2 O3 was even inhibited by H2 O2 . The oxidase-like activity of Mn2 O3 was not much affected by the presence of proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA), but the physisorption of antibodies to Mn2 O3 was not strong enough to withstand the displacement by BSA. We then treated Mn2 O3 with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane to graft an amine group, which was used to conjugate antibodies using glutaraldehyde as a crosslinker. A one-step indirect competitive ELISA (icELISA) was developed for the detection of isocarbophos, and an IC50 of 261.7 ng/mL was obtained, comparable with the results of the standard two-step assay using horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled antibodies. This assay has the advantage of significant timesaving for rapid detection of large amounts of samples. This work has discovered a highly efficient oxidase-mimicking nanozyme useful for various nano- and analytical applications.