A novel electrochemical strategy to detect hydrogen peroxide by utilizing peroxidase-mimicking activity of cerium oxide/graphene oxide nanocomposites

Abstract

We herein describe a novel electrochemical strategy to detect hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) by utilizing the peroxidase-mimicking activity of cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO₂ NP) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Particularly, CeO₂ NP/rGO nanocomposites were deposited on the commercial electrode by a very convenient and direct electrochemical reduction of graphene oxide. Due to the peroxidase-mimicking activity of CeO₂ NP and the outstanding electrochemical properties of reduced graphene oxide, the reduction current of H₂O₂ was greatly enhanced. Based on this strategy, we reliably determined H₂O₂ down to 1.67 μM with excellent specificity and further validated its practical capabilities by robustly detecting H₂O₂ present in heterogeneous human serum samples. We believe that this work could serve as a new facile platform for H₂O₂ detection.

Keywords: Cerium oxide nanoparticles; Hydrogen peroxide; Peroxidase activity; Reduced graphene oxide.