Oxidase-mimicking nanozymes with specificity for catalyzing
oxidation
of aromatic amines are of great significance for recognition of aromatic
amines but rarely reported. Herein, Cu-A nanozyme (synthesized with
Cu2+ as a node and adenine as a linker) could specifically
catalyze oxidation of o-phenylenediamine (OPD) in
Britton–Robinson buffer solution. Such a specific catalytic
performance was also corroborated with other aromatic amines, such
as p-phenylenediamine (PPD), 1,5-naphthalene diamine
(1,5-NDA), 1,8-naphthalene diamine (1,8-NDA), and 2-aminoanthracene
(2-AA). Moreover, the presence of salts (1 mM NaNO2, NaHCO3, NH4Cl, KCl, NaCl, NaBr, and NaI) greatly mediated
the catalytic activity with the order of NaNO2 < blank
≈ NaHCO3 < NH4Cl ≈ KCl ≈
NaCl < NaBr < NaI, which was due to anions sequentially increasing
interfacial Cu+ content via anionic redox reaction, while
the effect of cations was negligible. With the increased Cu+ content, K
m decreased and V
max increased, indicating valence-engineered catalytic
activity. Based on high specificity and satisfactory activity, a colorimetric
sensor array with NaCl, NaBr, and NaI as sensing channels was constructed
to identify five representative aromatic amines (OPD, PPD, 1,5-NDA,
1,8-NDA, and 2-AA) as low as 50 μM, quantitatively analyze single
aromatic amine (with OPD and PPD as model analysts), and even identify
20 unknown samples with an accuracy of 100%. In addition, the performance
was further validated through accurately recognizing various concentration
ratios of binary, ternary, quaternary, and quinary mixtures. Finally,
the practical applications were demonstrated by successfully discriminating
five aromatic amines in tap, river, sewage, and sea water, providing
a simple and feasible assay for large-scale scanning aromatic amine
levels in environmental water samples.