Detection of urinary spermine by using silver-gold/silver chloride nanozymes.

In this paper, we report a simple one-step synthesis method for silver-gold bimetallic nanoparticles deposition on silver chloride nanosheets to form Ag-Au/AgCl nanohybrid with oxidase-like and peroxidase-like catalytic activity. We used these nanohybrid in the detection of spermine. First, 13 nm-sized Au NPs were synthesized by citrate reduction of HAuCl solution, and then, Ag ions were added to the solution without any purification. The added Ag reacted with the Cl ions in the dispersion, thus immediately forming AgCl nanosheets through a precipitation reaction, and the aurophilic interactions with the Au NPs resulted in the formation and in situ self-deposition of Ag-Au NPs on the AgCl nanosheets at room temperature. We investigated the enzyme-mimicking activity of the Ag-Au/AgCl nanohybrid in detail via the O- or HO-Amplex Red (AR) redox system. The Ag-Au/AgCl nanohybrid exhibited at least 150-fold higher catalytic activity than that of Ag-Au NPs or AgCl nanosheets, due to synergistic effect. Spermine inhibited the enzyme-mimic activity of the Ag-Au/AgCl nanohybrid, thereby allowing for the construction of a probe for detecting nanomolar concentrations of spermine in urine samples. This cost-effective sensing system was used to easily and rapidly detect the concentrations of spermine in complex urine samples.