Rational
design of high-performance nanozyme is of great significance
for sensing applications. Here, N-doped carbon nanocages containing
Co-N
x
active sites (CoN
x
-NC) were fabricated by simple acid etching of Co@NC, which
is the product of Co–Co Prussian blue analogues carbonized
in an N2 atmosphere. Both optimized Co@NC-650 and CoN
x
-NC-650 exhibit catalase- and oxidase-like
properties. They rapidly decompose H2O2 into
O2 and oxidize colorless 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine
(TMB) into a blue product. This enables them with no peroxidase-like
activity. The oxidase-like activity of CoN
x
-NC-650 is 3.9 times that of unetched Co@NC-650. The acid treatment
dissolves Co nanoparticles generated during carbonization, forming
extra mesoporous structures and increasing the exposure of more Co-N
x
active species. The Michaelis–Menten
constant for CoN
x
-NC-650 with a TMB substrate
is 0.186 mM, which is 3.2 times lower than that of oxidase-mimicking
CeO2 nanoparticles, suggesting a higher affinity to TMB.
Given its excellent oxidase-like activity, the CoN
x
-NC-650 was used to sensitively and selectively determine acetylcholinesterase
(AChE) activity based on thiocholine inhibition of the TMB color reaction.
Thiocholine is produced via hydrolysis of acetylthiocholine catalyzed
by AChE. The colorimetric biosensor has a linear response to AChE
over 0.6–800 mU L–1 concentration range and
a detection limit (3σ) of 0.2 mU L–1. The
assay was successfully applied to determine AChE activity in biological
samples.