CuO nanoparticles derived from metal-organic gel with excellent electrocatalytic and peroxidase-mimicking activities for glucose and cholesterol detection

A simple and efficient strategy was developed to fabricate CuO nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) with high surface area by the direct pyrolysis of a metal-organic gel (MOG) precursor for constructing versatile catalytic interfaces. Unexpectedly, the obtained CuO-NPs exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity for glucose (Glu) oxidation reaction. The linear range of glucose was from 5 μM to 600 with the detection limit of 0.59 μM. Additionally, the CuO-NPs showed distinguished intrinsic peroxidase-mimicking activities, which can be further used as biomimetic nanozymes for sensitively and rapidly detecting cholesterol. A good linearity of cholesterol was performed in the range from 1 μM to 15 μM with the detection limit of 0.43 μM. The as-prepared CuO-NPs could provide a versatile catalytic platform for the application of electrochemical sensors and biomimetic enzyme catalytic systems. This study proved the high potential of MOG-derived nanostructured transition metal oxides (TMOs) with multiple complex functions. [Display omitted] •Metal-organic gel (MOG) as a novel and potential precursor was utilized to synthesize porous CuO-NPs with high surface area.•The CuO-NPs exhibited excellent electrocatalytic and peroxidase-mimicking activities, which can construct versatile catalytic interfaces for promising applications in electrochemical sensors and biomimetic enzyme catalytic systems.•The novel idea revealed the high potential of MOG-derived nanostructured TMOs with multiple complex functions.