Herein,
we developed an unmodified hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)
photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensing platform with a low background
signal and high sensitivity based on CuS quantum dots (QDs)/Co3O4 polyhedra-driven multiple signal amplifications.
The prepared porous h-BN nanosheets with large specific surface areas,
as the photoelectric substrate material, can provide extensive active
reaction sites. Meanwhile, the CuS QDs/Co3O4 polyhedra were synthesized by the zeolitic imidazolate framework
(ZIF-67) and utilized as a multiple signal amplifier, which can not
only drive the p-n semiconductor quenching effect to compete with
the h-BN photoelectrode for the consumption of electron donors and
exciting light but also trigger a mimetic enzymatic catalytic precipitation
effect to inhibit electron transfer. The quenching ability and peroxidase-like
activity of CuS QDs/Co3O4 polyhedra were evaluated
to prove its superiority, and the possible mechanisms of electron
transfer and enzymatic catalytic were further analyzed in detail.
The developed PEC biosensing platform for the chlorpyrifos assay presented
outstanding performance with a wide linear range from 1 × 10–1 to 1 × 107 ng mL–1 and a low detection limit of 0.34 pg mL–1 and
exhibited excellent selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. In
addition, the CuS QDs/Co3O4 polyhedra-activated
h-BN PEC biosensing platform may exhibit universality for various
analytes via replacing the corresponding target aptamer sequence.
This work provides a remarkable inspiration and valuable reference
for the development of the PEC biosensor, and the signal amplifier-enabled
unmodified PEC biosensing platform strategy has a bright application
in early safety warning, bioanalysis and clinical diagnosis.