Biomimetic Laccase-Cu2O@MOF for synergetic degradation and colorimetric detection of phenolic compounds in wastewater

The successful combination of chemo- and enzyme catalysis technologies in wastewater treatment has presented great potentialities as well as challenges for decades. Herein, laccase (Lac) was immobilized on the Cu2[email protected] by covalent linkage to obtain a stable composite (Cu2[email protected]) with synergistic catalytic activity. The Cu2[email protected] with peroxidase-like activity was in situ synthesized by microwave-assisted assembly method. Cu2[email protected] exhibited high activity recovery, large immobilization capacity, remarkable tolerance to pH and high temperature conditions. Based on the prepared mimic multi-enzyme system, Cu2[email protected] showed broad application prospects in degradation and detection of phenolic compounds. The synergetic catalytic degradation efficiency reached 82.5% in 2h and the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.29 μM in the range of 0-200 μM of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP). Further investigation found that chemo- and enzyme catalysis jointly accelerate the degradation of 2,4-DCP, and the hydroxyl radical (•OH) mediated radical pathway serve a predominant role. Therefore, the chem-enzyme integrated catalyst presented in this work provides a promising platform for organic pollutants degradation and detection by combining the enzymes and Cu2[email protected]