Insertion of Hemin into Metal–Organic Frameworks: Mimicking Natural Peroxidase Microenvironment for the Rapid Ultrasensitive Detection of Uranium

Constructing enzyme-like active sites in mimic enzyme systems is critical for achieving catalytic performances comparable to natural enzymes and can shed light on the natural development of enzymes. In this study, we described a specific hemin-based mimetic enzyme, which was facilely synthesized by the assembly of zeolitic imidazolate framework-l (ZIF-l) and hemin. The obtained hemin-based mimetic enzyme (denoted as ZIF-l-hemin) displayed enhanced peroxidase activity compared to free hemin in solution. Such excellent activity originated from the ZIF-l framework mimicking the active site cavity microenvironment of horseradish peroxidase in terms of axially coordinated histidine and distal histidine. Additionally, the constructed peroxidase mimetic was extremely resistant to a variety of severe circumstances that would normally denature natural enzymes. These characteristics made ZIF-l-hemin a potential platform for the colorimetric sensor of uranium (UO22+) with wide linear ranges (0.25–40 μM) and low limits of detection (0.079 μM). Moreover, the detection mechanism demonstrated that the coordination of uranyl ion with imidazole of ZIF-l-hemin reduced the catalytic efficiency of ZIF-l-hemin. The current work not only proposed a novel approach for fabricating artificial peroxidase but also offered facile colorimetric methods for selective radionuclide detection.