The Ce4+↔Ce3+ redox switch is at the basis of an all-inorganic catalytic cycle that is capable of mimicking the activity of several natural redox enzymes. The efficiency of these artificial enzymes (nanozymes) strongly depends on the Ce4+/Ce3+ ratio. By capitalizing on the results obtained on oxide/oxide model systems, we implemented a simple and effective procedure to obtain conformal TiO2@CeOx core-shell nanoparticles whose thickness is controlled with single-layer precision. Since the Ce3+ species are stabilized only at the interface by the electronic hybridization with the TiO2 states, the modulation of the shell thickness offers a simple method to tailor the Ce4+/Ce3+ ratio and therefore the catalytic properties. The activity of these nanoparticles as artificial peroxidase-like enzymes was tested, showing exceptional performances, even better than natural horseradish peroxidase enzyme. The main advantage with respect to other oxide/oxide nanozymes is that our nanoparticles, having a tunable Ce4+/Ce3+ ratio, are efficient already at low H2O2 concentrations.
Keywords: artificial enzyme; cerium oxide; core−shell; interface hybridization; peroxidase; titanium dioxide.