Platinum nanocatalysts loaded on graphene oxide-dispersed carbon nanotubes with greatly enhanced peroxidase-like catalysis and electrocatalysis activities.

A powerful enzymatic mimetic has been fabricated by employing graphene oxide (GO) nanocolloids to disperse conductive carbon supports of hydrophobic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) before and after the loading of Pt nanocatalysts. The resulting GOCNT-Pt nanocomposites could present improved aqueous dispersion stability and Pt spatial distribution. Unexpectedly, they could show greatly enhanced peroxidase-like catalysis and electrocatalysis activities in water, as evidenced in the colorimetric and electrochemical investigations in comparison to some inorganic nanocatalysts commonly used. Moreover, it is found that the new enzyme mimetics could exhibit peroxidase-like catalysis activity comparable to natural enzymes; yet, they might circumvent some of their inherent problems in terms of catalysis efficiency, electron transfer, environmental stability, and cost effectiveness. Also, sandwiched electrochemical immunoassays have been successfully conducted using GOCNT-Pt as enzymatic tags. Such a fabrication avenue of noble metal nanocatalysts loaded on well-dispersed conductive carbon supports should be tailored for the design of different enzyme mimics promising the extensive catalysis applications in environmental, medical, industrial, and particularly aqueous biosensing fields.