Nanozymatic Biofuel Cell-Enabled Self-Powered Sensing System for a Sensitive Immunoassay

Self-powered sensing system (SPSS) integrating the enzymatic biofuel cell and biosensing platform has attracted tremendous interest. However, natural enzymes suffer from the intrinsic drawbacks of enzymes and enzymatic proteins. Nanozymes with enzyme-like activities are the ideal alternatives to enzymes, and it is greatly challenging to explore high-performance nanozymatic biofuel cell for SPSS. Herein, the advanced nanozymatic biofuel cell-enabled SPSS is developed for the sensitive detection of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), where Ir single atoms supported by nitrogen-doped carbon and Au nanozymes serve as the cathode and anode, respectively. Based on the excellent electrochemical activity and stability, the resultant nanozymatic biofuel cell exhibits a higher power output and open-circuit potential than the Pt/C-based counterpart, which is beneficial for the application of SPSS. As a proof of concept, the nanozymatic biofuel cell-enabled SPSS shows a wide detection range of 0.2-500 ng mL-1 with a detection limit of 62 pg mL-1 for PSA, which provides new insight into broadening the application scenarios of nanozymes.