posted on 2022-12-28, 07:43authored byRidge Chavalala, Philani Mashazi
Nanomaterials of gold and palladium have received research
attention
due to their excellent catalytic properties. Their recovery after
the catalytic reaction still remains a challenge rendering the catalytic
application of these nanomaterials for single use. Herein, we report
a method of fabricating nanomaterials as thin nanoparticle (NP) films
on catalytically inert surfaces, while allowing for their recovery
and reuse is investigated. Indium tin oxide (ITO) glass slides were
first hydroxylated (ITO-OH) and used to attach the silica NPs (SiO2NPs) to form ITO-SiO2NPs. The ITO-SiO2NPs surface was used as an adsorbent for gold and palladium mono-
and bimetallic NPs (Au/PdNPs) to form ITO-SiO2-prS-Au/PdNPs,
which was evaluated for the enzyme-like catalytic activity. The fabricated
film with bimetallic NPs, ITO-SiO2-prS-Au/PdNPs, exhibited
excellent peroxidase-like activity for the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine
(TMB) with H2O2 when compared with monometallic
thin NP films, ITO-SiO2-prS-AuNPs, and ITO-SiO2-prS-PdNPs. A typical Michaelis–Menten enzyme-like behavior
of the bimetallic NP film, ITO-SiO2-prS-Au/PdNPs, was observed
for H2O2 and TMB with Michaelis–Menten
constants (Km) of 0.33 and 3.46 mM, respectively.
A simple, sensitive, and selective colorimetric assay for ascorbic
acid (AA) detection was fabricated based on the reduction effect of
AA on the oxidized TMB. The fabricated AA colorimetric sensor exhibited
a good linear range from 0.50 to 30.0 μM, with the limit of
detection of 0.50 μM and the limit of quantification of 1.65
μM. Finally, our proposed colorimetric sensor, ITO-SiO2-prS-Au/PdNPs, successfully detected AA in new-born calf serum samples,
as a real sample representative.