Ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets: a novel peroxidase mimetic, Fe doping-mediated catalytic performance enhancement and application to rapid, highly sensitive optical detection of glucose

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate for the first time that ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (g-C₃N₄) possess peroxidase activity. Fe doping of the nanosheets leads to peroxidase mimetics with greatly enhanced catalytic performance and the mechanism involved is proposed. We further demonstrate the novel use of such Fe–g-C₃N₄ as a cheap nanosensor for simple, rapid, highly selective and sensitive optical detection of glucose with a pretty low detection limit of 0.5 μM.