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Surface modification of MoS2 nanosheets by single Ni atom for ultrasensitive dopamine detection

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Abstract

Single atom catalysts have been recognized as potential catalysts to fabricate electrochemical biosensors, due to their unexpected catalytic selectivity and activity. Here, we designed and fabricated an ultrasensitive dopamine (DA) sensor based on the flower-like MoS2 embellished with single Ni site catalyst (Ni-MoS2). The limit of detection could achieve 1 pM in phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH=7.4), 1 pM in bovine serum (pH=7.4), and 100 pM in artificial urine (pH=6.8). The excellent sensing performance was attributed to the Ni single atom axial anchoring on the Mo atom in the MoS2 basal plane with the Ni-S3 structure. Both the experiment and density functional theory (DFT) results certify that this structural feature is more favorable for the adsorption and electron transfer of DA on Ni atoms. The high proportion of Ni active sites on MoS2 basal plane effectively enhanced the intrinsic electronic conductivity and electrochemical activity toward DA. The successful establishment of this sensor gives a new guide to expand the field of single atom catalyst in the application of biosensors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by China Ministry of Science and Technology (No. 2021YFA1500404), the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 2108085QB70 and 2108085UD06), the DNL Cooperation Fund, CAS (No. DNL201918), the Collaborative Innovation Program of Hefei Science Center, CAS(No. 2021HSC-CIP002), the Natural Science Foundation of Hefei, China (No. 2021044), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. WK2060000004, WK2060000021, WK2060000025, KY2060000180, and KY2060000195), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. WK5290000003). This work was partially carried out at the USTC Center for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication. Thank the funding support from CAS Fujian Institute of Innovation. We acknowledge the Experimental Center of Engineering and Material Science in the University of Science and Technology of China. We thank the photoemission endstations BL1W1B in Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF), BL14W1 in Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), and BL10B and BL11U in National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) for the help in characterizations. The DFT calculations in this work were performed at the Supercomputing Center of the University of Science and Technology of China. Special thanks go to the Instrumental Analysis Center of Shenzhen University (Lihu Campus).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Low-dimensional Materials Genome Initiative, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518071, China

    Xuejiao Sun & Zhen-Qiang Yu

  2. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xuejiao Sun, Cai Chen, Can Xiong, Congmin Zhang, Xiaoping Gao & Yuen Wu

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518071, China

    Jin Wang & Xiaoping Gao

  4. Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian, 116023, China

    Yuen Wu

  5. National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, China

    Xusheng Zheng

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  1. Xuejiao Sun
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Gao, Zhen-Qiang Yu or Yuen Wu.

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Sun, X., Chen, C., Xiong, C. et al. Surface modification of MoS2 nanosheets by single Ni atom for ultrasensitive dopamine detection. Nano Res. 16, 917–924 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4802-8

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