In this study, a facile and cost-effective hydrothermal
synthesis
method was used to synthesize zinc oxide nanoflowers modified by reduced
graphene oxide, and subsequently, trimetallic AuPtRu nanoparticles(AuPtRuNPs)
were supported via the reduction method for high-sensitivity colorimetric
detection of H
2
O
2
in weakly acidic solutions.
Compared to monometallic and bimetallic nanoparticles, trimetallic
nanoparticles exhibit significant synergistic effects and enhanced
catalytic activity. After providing a three-dimensional structure
with multiple pores by zinc oxide and enhancing electron transfer
ability by reduced graphene, the trimetallic nanocomposites (AuPtRu/ZnO-rGO)
exhibited excellent peroxidase-mimicking activity, which can effectively
catalyze 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to produce
a blue oxidation product (oxTMB) in the presence of H
2
O
2
. Compared to horseradish peroxidase (HRP), AuPtRu/ZnO-rGO
demonstrated significantly enhanced catalytic velocity (
V
max
= 6.16 × 10
–8
M/s) and affinity
(
K
m
= 0.02) for H
2
O
2
. The study of the catalytic mechanism showed that trimetallic Au,
Pt, and Ru could effectively catalyze H
2
O
2
to
produce hydroxyl radicals (
•
OH) to accelerate the
oxidation of TMB and enhance the peroxidase-mimicking activity of
the AuPtRu/ZnO-rGO nanocomposites. The results showed that the as-synthesized
hydrangea-like AuPtRu/ZnO-rGO nanocomposites showed enhanced peroxidase-mimicking
activity. It could be used for the colorimetric detection of H
2
O
2
in the range 5–1000 μM with a LOD
of 3.0 μM (S/N = 3), and the recoveries are 93.0–101.7%.
In addition, the AuPtRu/ZnO-rGO nanocomposites have good applicability
for sensitive colorimetric determination of H
2
O
2
in milk, and it has broad application prospects as a multifunctional
sensing platform in the food processing industry.