Fe(iii)-incorporated porphyrin-based conjugated organic polymer as a peroxidase mimic for the sensitive determination of glucose and H2O2

Abstract

Nanozymes, i.e., nanomaterials that possess intrinsic enzyme-like behaviour, have thrived over the past few decades owing to their advantages of superior stability and effortless storage. Such artificial enzymes can be a perfect alternative to naturally occurring enzymes, which have disadvantages of high cost and limited functionality. In this work, we present the fabrication of an Fe(III)-incorporated porphyrin-based conjugated organic polymer as a nanozyme for the efficient detection of glucose through its intrinsic peroxidase activity and the amperometric detection of hydrogen peroxide. The iron-incorporated porphyrin-based conjugated organic polymer (Fe-DMP-POR) possesses a spherical morphology with high chemical and thermal stability. Exploiting the peroxidase-mimicking activity of the material for the determination of glucose, a detection limit of 4.84 μM is achieved with a linear range of 0–0.15 mM. The Fe-DMP-POR also exhibits a reasonable recovery range for the detection of human blood glucose. The as-synthesized material can also act as an H₂O₂ sensor, with a sensitivity of 947.67 μA cm⁻² mM⁻¹ and a limit of detection of 3.16 μM.