Asymmetrically coordinated single-atom iron nanozymes with Fe-N1C2 structure: A peroxidase mimetic for melatonin detection

Owing to the unique coordination environment and high atom utilization efficiency, single atom catalysts have been considered as an ideal artificial enzyme to mimic natural enzymes. Herein, single-atom Fe nanozyme anchored on N-doped Ti3C2Tx (Fe SA/N-Ti3C2Tx) with asymmetrically coordinated Fe-N1C2 configuration is synthesized by vacancy capture and heteroatom doping strategy, which exhibits excellent peroxidase-like activity. Based on the results of peroxidase catalytic kinetics and X-ray adsorption fine spectroscopy, the Fe-N1C2 active sites in Fe SA/N-Ti3C2Tx are responsible for the excellent performance. Furthermore, the developed Fe SA/N-Ti3C2Tx can be employed to quantitative detection of melatonin (MT), which shows a wide linear detection range (0.01–100 µM) and an excellent detection limit (7.3 nM) in buffer, 0.01–100 µM and 7.8 nM in serum samples. Our work proves that MXene-based single atoms can be promising nanozyme in the field of bioassays.