Hierarchical {001}-faceted BiOBr microspheres as a novel biomimetic catalyst: dark catalysis towards colorimetric biosensing and pollutant degradation

In recent years, considerable effort has been devoted to finding novel enzyme mimetics with improved catalytic activities. However, the insightful understanding of such catalytic process is still elusive. In this paper, we report for the first time a typical photoactive layer-structured BiOBr as a novel biomimetic catalyst possessing highly efficient intrinsic peroxidase-like activity. Moreover, we have experimentally achieved high dark peroxidase-like catalytic activity in BiOBr microspheres and provided some new insights into the light-enhanced peroxidase-like catalytic property. On the basis of a typical color reaction derived from catalytic oxidation of peroxidase substrates over BiOBr microspheres with H2O2, the simple and sensitive colorimetric assays for detection of H2O2, glucose and ascorbic acid were successfully established. More interestingly, the BiOBr microspheres showed strong ability towards activation of H2O2, displaying excellent dark catalytic activity for the degradation of organic dye. It is therefore believed that our findings in this study could open up the possibility of utilizing BiOBr as enzymatic mimics in biotechnology and environmental remediation.