Highly Crystalline Oxidase-like MnOOH Nanowire-Incorporated Paper Dipstick for One-Step Colorimetric Detection of Dopamine

Developing a convenient detection method for dopamine holds a significant incentive due to its high clinical significance. Herein, we synthesize crystalline MnOOH nanowires (MNWs) via a simple solvothermal treatment of KMnO4 and demonstrate that they possess excellent oxidase-like activity owing to the presence of pure Mn3+ sites on the MNWs. Particularly, MNWs catalyze the rapid oxidation of dopamine into aminochromes, which show a vivid brown color. The dopamine oxidase-like activity of MNWs follows the typical Michaelis–Mentenkinetics with excellent storage stability. Based on the affirmative catalytic features, a paper dipstick incorporating MNWs in the detection zone is constructed for the one-step colorimetric detection of target dopamine. By immersing the dipstick into the sample solution for 30 min, the sample spontaneously moves to the detection zone due to capillary force, yielding a brown color proportional to the amount of dopamine, which is quantified from an image acquired using a smartphone. With the MNW-containing solution-based assay and MNW-incorporated paper dipstick, dopamine is successfully determined with high selectivity, sensitivity, and detection precision when using spiked human serum and pharmaceutical dopamine injection samples, respectively. Successful analytical values such as the dynamic linear ranges of 3–60 μM and 0.05–7 mM are achieved with the solution-based assay and paper dipstick, respectively, along with excellent detection accuracy (95–99%) and precision (1.0–3.1%). Hence, we developed a simple and efficient nanozyme-based paper dipstick biosensor for dopamine that can be used in point-of-care testing environments.