Oxygen-vacancy-enhanced Catalytic Activity of Au@Co3O4/CeO2 Yolk-shell Nanocomposite to Electrochemically Detect Hydrogen Peroxide

Biomimetic electrochemical sensors are very promising not only due to their lower expense and longer stability than conventional enzymatic ones, but they also often suffer from simultaneously achieving high sensitivity and good selectivity. Here we present a well-defined Au@Co₃O₄/CeO₂ yolk-shell nanostructure (YSN) that is first synthesized and exploited as highly efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) detection. The introduced CeO₂ in Co₃O₄ matrix greatly facilitates the migration of lattice oxygen, which increases the concentration of surface oxygen vacancies (O_a), remarkably enhancing the adsorption ability of H₂O₂ and promoting the decomposition of H₂O₂ for faster electron transfer than pristine Au@Co₃O₄ core-shell nanostructure (CSN). The abundant O_a of Au@Co₃O₄/CeO₂ YSN is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The as-prepared biomimetic sensor delivers a wide dynamic range (5.0 nM to 5.4 μM), a low limit of detection (LOD) (2.74 nM), and a high sensitivity (35.67 μA μM⁻¹ cm⁻²), paving a new way to construct an ultrasensitive and selective enzyme-free biomimetic electrochemical sensor. Furthermore, the sensor is used to real-time monitor H₂O₂ released from human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), demonstrating its great potential in practical applications.