The effective peroxidase-like activity of chitosan-functionalized CoFe2O4 nanoparticles for chemiluminescence sensing of hydrogen peroxide and glucose.

Here, we report a highly simple and general protocol for functionalization of the CoFe(2)O(4) NPs with chitosan polymers in order to make CoFe(2)O(4) NPs disperse and stable in solution. The functionalized CoFe(2)O(4) NPs (denoted as CF-CoFe(2)O(4) NPs) were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermogravimetric (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FT-IR spectra. It was found that the CoFe(2)O(4) NPs were successfully decorated and uniformly dispersed on the surface of chitosan without agglomeration. The CF-CoFe(2)O(4) NPs were found to increase greatly the radiation emitted during the CL oxidation of luminol by hydrogen peroxide. Results of ESR spin-trapping experiments demonstrated that the CF-CoFe(2)O(4) NPs showed catalytic ability to H(2)O(2) decomposition into ˙OH radicals. On this basis, a highly sensitive and rapid chemiluminescent method was developed for hydrogen peroxide in water samples and glucose in blood samples. Under optimum conditions, the proposed method allowed the detection of H(2)O(2) in the range of 1.0 × 10(-9) to 4.0 × 10(-6) M and glucose in the range of 5.0 × 10(-8) to 1.0 × 10(-5) M with detectable H(2)O(2) as low as 500 pM and glucose as low as 10 nM, respectively. This proposed method has been successfully applied to detect H(2)O(2) in environmental water samples and glucose in serum samples with good accuracy and precision.