Snowflake-like Ce-BTC@MoS2 heterojunction for high-performance uric acid detection

Abstract

The analysis of uric acid (UA) in urine is adopted as a standard method for diagnosing related diseases, which provides an effective way for non-invasive detection of UA. However, no portable instruments presently can take an effective detection of UA in urine due to their detection limit, the indicator mainly impacted by sensitive materials. Hence, it is crucial to design electrochemical biosensor electrode materials with high sensitivity and the wide linear region for the detection of UA in urine. This research critically reveals a snowflake-like complex by simply combining the cerium-based metal-organic framework (Ce-BTC) and MoS2. The excellent electrochemical performance of Ce-BTC@MoS2 origins from the strong interfacial electronic interactions between Ce-BTC and MoS2 heterojunction and abundant active sites for UA oxidation. The Ce-BTC@MoS2 exhibits sensitivity (300.29 μA mM−1cm−2) for UA much higher than that of pristine Ce-BTC (129.14 μA mM−1cm−2) as well as MoS2 (209.71 μA mM−1cm−2) in the linear region from 5 to 2500 μM. The outstanding selectivity, excellent stability and attractive repeatability of the UA sensor fabricated by Ce-BTC@MoS2 have been also demonstrated, on account of the unique heterojunction of the electrode material. Additionally, the extensive linear region (0.5–4.4 mM) for the Ce-BTC@MoS2 sensor will be employed to analyze the concentration of UA in urine which can be directly measured without being processed. The prepared urine UA detector combined with the commercial blood UA detector provides an important basis for the comprehensive UA detection and clinical diagnosis.