Porous uranium oxide hollow sphere nanoparticles were synthesized in ionic liquids under hydrothermal conditions. Various precipitating agents and ionic liquids were investigated to determine their respective impact on the resultant uranium oxide morphologies. Using hydrazine hydrate as precipitating agent and N-butyl pyridinium bromide as templating agent, a porous-hollow structure was created with a surface area of 1958 m2.g-1 and an average pore diameter of 30 nm. The nanoparticles revealed high peroxidase-mimicking activity. This was evaluated by using the peroxidase substrate 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) that is catalytically oxidized by H2O2 to give oxidized TMB (oxTMB) which is blue (with an absorption peak at 652 nm). The material was used as a nanozyme for colorimetric detection of Sn2+. Meanwhile, it is found that BSA strongly improves the catalytic activity of the nanozyme, while Sn(II) inhibits its activity. Thus, a colorimetric method for Sn2+ detection was designed. The method works in the 0.5-100 μM Sn(II) concentration range and has a lower detection limit of 0.36 μM (at S/N = 3). Graphical abstract The catalytic activity of porous-hollow nano-UO2 toward the oxidation of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine by H2O2 is remarkably improved in the presence of bovine serum albumin, while tin(II) inhibits its activity. This finding has been applied to design a method for colorimetric quantification of tin(II) in water samples.
Keywords: Ionic liquids; Nuclear materials; Peroxidase mimic; Uranium oxide.