Iridium Single-Atomic Site Catalysts with Superior Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity for Sensitive Monitoring of Organophosphorus Pesticides

Tremendous efforts have been made in developing single-atomic site catalysts (SASCs) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which is regarded as a pivotal cornerstone in electrochemical energy conversion. However, SASCs for ORR have not been explored for electrochemical sensing. Herein, a template-sacrificed strategy is reported for the synthesis of atomically dispersed Ir SASCs, serving as a sensing platform to detect organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) with high sensitivity and selectivity. Owing to abundant Ir single-atom active sites, Ir SASCs show excellent ORR activity and stability in a neutral medium. It is found that the ORR activity of Ir SASCs can be inhibited by thiocholine, which is the hydrolysate of acetylthiocholine. After being integrated with acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the AChE-Ir SASC-based electrochemical sensor is established and shows a superior sensitivity, which shows a wide detection range of 0.5-500 ng mL-1 with a low detection limit of 0.17 ng mL-1 for OPs. This work exhibits a broad application prospect of ORR for sensitive detection of biomolecules.