An ultrasensitive colorimetric/fluorescent/photothermal sensing platform for the detection of D-amino acids based on carbon dots nanozymes with enhanced peroxidase-like activity

Abstract

Based on the enhanced peroxidase-like activity of carbon dots nanozymes (CDszymes), with a specific oxidation reaction of D-amino acid oxidase catalysing the formation of H₂O₂ from D-amino acid, an ultrasensitive sensing platform, was constructed for the quantitative detection of D-amino acids in saliva. With the increase of D-amino acids concentration, the blue color of catalytic product gradually deepend, the fluorescence CDszymes gradually quenched, and the temperature gradually increased. Using D-alanine as D-amino acid models, the detection limits of D-alanine in colorimetric/photothermal/fluorescent mode were 0.3 μM, 1.8 μM, and 0.04 μM, respectively. The proposed detection platform exhibits promising application potential in clinical diagnostics. The exceptional sensing performance can be attributed to the utilization of CDszymes with outstanding POD activity. Revolving around the blind synthesis of CDszymes exhibiting high-efficiency POD activity, this study delved into the underlying mechanism governing the regulation of the POD activity of CDszymes by precursor functional groups. This work investigates the valence band theory to enhance the peroxidase-like of CDszymes, thereby offering a rational approach for designing CDszymes.

Graphical abstract