Hexavalent Chromium as a Smart Switch for Peroxidase-like Activity Regulation via the Surface Electronic Redistribution of Silver Nanoparticles Anchored on Carbon Spheres

Although some ions, due to their unique chemical properties, can regulate the enzyme-like activity of nanomaterials, it is still a huge challenge to explore the mechanism of regulation. Herein, we found that Cr6+ (CrO42–) as a smart switch can significantly increase the peroxidase-like (POD-like) activity of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), which were anchored efficiently on carbon spheres (Cal-CS/PEG/Ag) using amino-modified poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as a bridge. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrated that the addition of Cr6+ can not only adjust the surface electronic redistribution of Ag atoms but also improve the geometric structure of the adsorbed intermediate, which resulted in the optimization of free energy and change of bond lengths in the catalytic reaction process, increasing the POD-like activity of Cal-CS/PEG/Ag. Based on the Cr6+-increased POD-like activity of Cal-CS/PEG/Ag, we successfully constructed a visual sensor of Cr6+ along with quantitative analysis by the UV spectrum. The sensor has good selectivity for other 29 interfering ions and molecules with a detection limit of 79 nM. In this work, the detailed mechanism of the Cr6+-increased POD-like activity of Ag NPs was studied and a new possibility for the rational design of ion visual sensors using nanomaterials was proposed.