Hydrogen peroxide-assisted and histidine-stabilized copper-containing nanozyme for efficient degradation of various organic dyes

Abstract

Nanozymes have potential applications in many fields, and a novel copper-containing nanozyme with highly dispersity and uniformity was self-assembled for efficient degradation of various organic dyes in this work. In the nanozyme, histidine was used to coordinate with copper ions, and hydrogen peroxide was prone to Fenton-like reaction to generate hydroxylated copper oxide intermediates. The nanozyme showed good peroxidase-like activity, and also had the ability to catalyze the degradation of various organic dyes efficiently with good storage and recycling ability. Furthermore, the degradation kinetics and mechanism of nanozyme had been further studied, and found that hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen play vital roles in the catalytic degradation process. Meanwhile, this nanozyme can efficiently degrade two organic compounds at the same time, and this system is capable of dealing with complex practical application scenarios where wastewater contains a variety of organic pollutants.