The Mn-modified porphyrin metal-organic framework with enhanced oxidase-like activity for sensitively colorimetric detection of glutathione

The selective detection of glutathione (GSH) has been used as important colorimetric probe for human health. Herein, we used a facile method to synthesize manganese ions modified porphyrin metal-organic framework (PCN-224-Mn) with a size of 125.7 ± 14.2 nm and zeta potential of -3.9 ± 0.5 mV. We showed that PCN-224-Mn catalyzed oxidation of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the absence of H2O2, resulting in a blue-colored oxidized TMB (oxTMB) that exhibits oxidase-like activity. Furthermore, a simple colorimetric detection method for GSH was developed based on the oxidase-like activity of PCN-224-Mn. This method shows wide linear detection range of 0.5-60 μM for GSH with a much lower detection limit of 0.233 μM. Finally, the recovery of colorimetric sensor of PCN-224-Mn suggests its great potential as a biosensor. As the catalytically active site, the manganese porphyrin unit plays a major role in the oxidase-like property and detection ability of PCN-224-Mn. Our data suggest that GSH detection method using PCN-224-Mn has great potential in multiple applications in the future.