Mesoporous silica-supported platinum nanocatalysts for colorimetric detection of glucose, cholesterol, and C-reactive protein

Abstract

Noble metal nanoparticles decorated on a catalyst support with a large specific surface area can exhibit enhanced catalytic activity. To this end, a synthetic method to heterogeneously and evenly nucleate platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) onto mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) is developed. The obtained Pt NP-modified MSNs (Pt-MSNs) are characterized as a thin layer of 3 nm-sized Pt NPs densely assembled on the MSN surface, by which the throughput of the peroxidase-like activity of Pt-MSNs is greatly improved. The utility of Pt-MSNs in colorimetric detection of analytes is validated for two different assay schemes. Firstly, colloidally dispersed Pt-MSNs are employed as a peroxidase-mimic in a two-step cascade reaction to quantitate glucose/cholesterol based on the amount of H₂O₂ produced by glucose/cholesterol oxidase. Secondly, detection of C-reactive protein (CRP) is conducted on a solid substrate by adopting a sandwich immunoassay format. Detection limits are estimated to be 20 μM, 55 μM, and 3.9 pM for glucose, cholesterol, and CRP, respectively.