Chemiluminescent magnetic nanoparticles with good catalytic activity and rapid separation capability and sensitive sensing for H2O2

It is of considerable importance to develop chemiluminescent functionalized nanomaterials (CF-NMs) with good catalytic activity, high chemiluminescence (CL) efficiency and good stability, and rapid magnetic separation capability, achieving excellent performance in CL biosensing. In this study, N-(4-aminobutyl)-N-ethylisoluminol (ABEI)-functionalized CuFe 2 O 4 magnetic nanomaterial (ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 ) with high catalytic activity was synthesized by virtue of a solvothermal and post-functionalization method. ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 showed outstanding CL properties, superior to ABEI-CuFe 2 O 4 in liquid phase. This reveals that the immobilization of ABEI on the surface of CuFe 2 O 4 exhibits unique heterogeneous catalytic property. The catalytic ability of CuFe 2 O 4 was better than that of CoFe 2 O 4 , ZnFe 2 O 4 , MnFe 2 O 4 , and NiFe 2 O 4 . It is suggested that the peroxide-like activity as well as Cu 2+ and Cu 0 enriched on the surface of ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 opened up a dual route for synergistic catalysis of H 2 O 2 . ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 also demonstrated good superparamagnetism and magnetic separation could be carried out in 2 min, which is advantageous for the separation and purification of ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 during the synthetic procedures and bioassays. Owing to the sensitive response of ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 to H 2 O 2 , an enzyme-free sensor was developed for the detection of H 2 O 2 with a wide linear range over 5 orders of magnitude of H 2 O 2 concentrations and a low detection limit of 5.6 nM. The as-developed sensor is sensitive, stable, and convenient. This work provides a new family member of nanomaterials with good magnetism and CL activity as well as good stability. The developed ABEI/CuFe 2 O 4 shows great prospects in biocatalysis, bioassays, biosensing, and bioimaging, etc. Graphical abstract