Porous hollow carbon nanobubbles@ZnCdS multi-shelled dodecahedral cages with enhanced visible-light harvesting for ultrasensitive photoelectrochemical biosensors

Herein, novel photoactive materials, MOF-derived porous hollow carbon nanobubbles@ZnCdS multi-shelled dodecahedral cages (C@ZnCdS MSDCs)， were synthesized via continuous chemical etching, sulfurization, cation-exchange and calcination strategies. Due to the synergistic effect between the porous shells and the carbon-layer coating， C@ZnCdS MSDCs displayed superior photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. The synthesized C@ZnCdS MSDCs were assembled onto TiO2 modified ITO electrodes to form a type-II heterostructures. Then, Au nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited on the surface of ITO/TiO2/C@ZnCdS MSDCs. Benefiting from the unique structure and performance merits of photoactive materials, a label-free PEC sensing platform based on ITO/TiO2/C@ZnCdS MSDCs/Au was successfully constructed for CEA detection. Under optimal conditions, the PEC biosensor exhibited a wide linear range (0.00005–500 ng mL−1) and low detection limit (2.28 fg mL−1). The proposed PEC biosensor also showed good stability, specificity, reproducibility and acceptability in human serum. The prepared C@ZnCdS MSDCs would be a promising photoactive material for PEC biosensors. Most importantly, this work opens up new horizons for the application of MOFs-derived hollow carbon materials in sensing. •MOFs-derived C@ZnCdS MSDCs with superior PEC performance were synthesized for the first time.•This work opens up a promising approach for synthesis of multi-shell hollow carbon materials.•The PEC biosensor mechanism of TiO2/C@ZnCdS MSDCs/Au for CEA was studied.•TiO2/C@ZnCdS MSDCs/Au-based biosensor exhibited superior sensing performances.