Cu–hemin metal-organic frameworks with peroxidase-like activity as peroxidase mimics for colorimetric sensing of glucose

In this work, a facile strategy to synthesize Cu–hemin metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with peroxidase-like activity was reported. The prepared Cu–hemin MOFs were characterized by various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV–visible absorbance spectra, and so on. The results showed that the prepared Cu–hemin MOFs looked like a ball-flower with an average diameter of 10 μm and provided a large specific surface area. The Cu–hemin MOFs possessing peroxidase-like activity could be used to catalyze the peroxidase substrate of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine in the presence of H2O2, which was employed to detect H2O2 quantitatively with the linear range from 1.0 μM to 1.0 mM and the detection limit was 0.42 μM. Furthermore, with the additional help of glucose oxidase, a sensitive and selective method to detect glucose was developed by using the Cu–hemin MOFs as catalyst and the linear range was from 10.0 μM to 3.0 mM and the detection limit was 6.9 μM. This work informs researchers of the advantages of MOFs for preparing biomimetic catalysts and extends the functionality of MOFs for biosensor application.