Copper-Based Nanostructures as Peroxidase Mimics: Elucidating the Roles of Shape, Composition, and Chloride Ion Modulation.
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, United States.
- 2Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, United States.
- 3Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States.
- 4Arkansas Nano & Bio Materials Characterization Facility, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, United States.
Abstract
Nanozymes, artificial enzymes that have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional enzymes, offer high stability, versatility, and ease of production. In this study, we investigated the peroxidase-mimicking activity of Cu-based nanostructures, including nanoparticles (CuNS) and nanowires (CuNW), as well as Cu-Au alloys and intermetallic nanoparticles. The substrate 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) was used to monitor the kinetics. Our results showed that CuNW exhibited 2.1-fold higher activity toward TMB oxidation than CuNS, with a k cat value of 10.0 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. The addition of NaCl enhanced catalytic activity, decreasing the activation energy (E a) from 15.54 to 11.92 kJ/mol for CuNS and from 14.30 to 12.83 kJ/mol for CuNW. The mechanism involves a Cu-(I)/Cu-(II) cycle, where Cu metal coupling and chloride ions facilitate the reaction. The Cu₃Au alloy nanoparticles exhibited 1.8-fold higher catalytic activity than their intermetallic counterparts, with a k cat value of 3.68 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ due to differences in their Cu stability. Chloride ions had a positive effect on catalytic activity, lowering E a values from 30.45 to 16.80 kJ/mol for the alloy and from 37.92 to 32.10 kJ/mol for the intermetallic. Our findings provide new insights into the development of nonprecious metal-containing catalysts as efficient nanozymes for various applications.
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BibTeX
@article{salmanian2026copperbased,
title = {{Copper-Based Nanostructures as Peroxidase Mimics: Elucidating the Roles of Shape, Composition, and Chloride Ion Modulation.}},
author = {Ghazaleh Salmanian and Lihua Zhang and Mourad Benamara and Abigail Bell and Jingyi Chen},
journal = {ACS nanoscience Au},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/acsnanoscienceau.6c00146},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921435},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Copper-Based Nanostructures as Peroxidase Mimics: Elucidating the Roles of Shape, Composition, and Chloride Ion Modulation.
AU - Ghazaleh Salmanian
AU - Lihua Zhang
AU - Mourad Benamara
AU - Abigail Bell
AU - Jingyi Chen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
JO - ACS nanoscience Au
DO - 10.1021/acsnanoscienceau.6c00146
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921435
AB - Nanozymes, artificial enzymes that have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional enzymes, offer high stability, versatility, and ease of production. In this study, we investigated the peroxidase-mimicking activity of Cu-based nanostructures, including nanoparticles (CuNS) and nanowires (CuNW), as well as Cu-Au alloys and intermetallic nanoparticles. The substrate 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) was used to monitor the kinetics. Our results showed that CuNW exhibited 2.1-fold higher activity toward TMB oxidation than CuNS, with a k cat value of 10.0 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. The addition of NaCl enhanced catalytic activity, decreasing the activation energy (E a) from 15.54 to 11.92 kJ/mol for CuNS and from 14.30 to 12.83 kJ/mol for CuNW. The mechanism involves a Cu-(I)/Cu-(II) cycle, where Cu metal coupling and chloride ions facilitate the reaction. The Cu₃Au alloy nanoparticles exhibited 1.8-fold higher catalytic activity than their intermetallic counterparts, with a k cat value of 3.68 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ due to differences in their Cu stability. Chloride ions had a positive effect on catalytic activity, lowering E a values from 30.45 to 16.80 kJ/mol for the alloy and from 37.92 to 32.10 kJ/mol for the intermetallic. Our findings provide new insights into the development of nonprecious metal-containing catalysts as efficient nanozymes for various applications.
SN - 2694-2496
ER -