A liquid colorimetric chemosensor for ultrasensitive detection of glyphosate residues in vegetables using a metal oxide with intrinsic peroxidase catalytic activity

Smartphone-assisted colorimetric aptasensor for rapid detection of carbendazim residue in agriculture products based on the oxidase-mimicking activity of octahedral Ag2O nanoparticles

Carbendazim (CBZ) is a widely used pesticides, and its excessive intake is serious damage to humans and animals. Herein, a stable and sensitive colorimetric aptasensor for rapid detection of CBZ residue has been established based on the enhancement of CBZ-specific aptamer (CZ-13) on oxidase-mimicking activity of octahedral Ag2O nanoparticles (NPs). The CZ-13 aptamer can significantly increase the catalytic activity by promoting the production of superoxide anion (·O2-) on the surface of Ag2O NPs and enhancing the affinity of octahedral Ag2O NPs to 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) molecules. In the presence of CBZ, the quantity of CZ-13 aptamer will be exhausted due to the specific binding to CBZ pesticide. Thus, the rest CZ-13 aptamer no longer enhanced the catalytic activity of octahedral Ag2O NPs, which leads to the change in color of sensing solution. The color change of sensing solution can be easily converted to the corresponding RGB value by a smartphone for quantitative and rapid detection of CBZ. The designed aptasensor has excellent sensitivity and specificity, and the limit of detection was determined as low as 7.35 μg L-1 for CBZ assay. Besides, the aptasensor exhibited good recoveries in the spiked cabbage, apple and cucumber, showing that it may have broad application prospects for detecting CBZ residues in agriculture products.

Application of Nanozymes in Environmental Monitoring, Management, and Protection

Nanozymes are nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity, possessing the unique properties of nanomaterials and natural enzyme-like catalytic functions. Nanozymes are catalytically active, stable, tunable, recyclable, and versatile. Therefore, increasing attention has been paid in the fields of environmental science and life sciences. In this review, we focused on the most recent applications of nanozymes for environmental monitoring, environmental management, and environmental protection. We firstly introduce the tuning catalytic activity of nanozymes according to some crucial factors such as size and shape, composition and doping, and surface coating. Then, the application of nanozymes in environmental fields are introduced in detail. Nanozymes can not only be used to detect inorganic ions, molecules, organics, and foodborne pathogenic bacteria but are also involved in the degradation of phenolic compounds, dyes, and antibiotics. The capability of nanozymes was also reported for assisting air purification, constructing biofuel cells, and application in marine antibacterial fouling removal. Finally, the current challenges and future trends of nanozymes toward environmental fields are proposed and discussed.

A dual-channel probe based on copper ion-mediated metal organic framework composite for colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescence monitoring of glyphosate degradation in soil and water

A dual-channel probe was developed, based on a novel composite metal organic frameworks (ZnMOF-74@Al-MOF) for glyphosate determination through ratio fluorescence and colorimetric methods. The prepared probe can not only recognize and combine glyphosate by introducing copper ion into the MOF, but also possess peroxidase-like catalytic activity. The recognition of target glyphosate brought about changes relative to its concentration on fluorescence intensity and ultraviolet absorption. And, the high specific surface area and porosity of porphyrin MOF provides the developed probe with more response opportunities to afford a better detection performance for glyphosate. Under optimum conditions, the copper ion-mediated method exhibited good detection performance for glyphosate with low detection limits (0.070 and 0.092 μg mL^-1 for fluorescence and colorimetric techniques, respectively). Furthermore, the possible mechanisms of the fluorescence quenching and the peroxidase-like catalytic of the probe were also explored. This dual-channel method was applied to monitor glyphosate degradation in environmental samples and satisfactory results were obtained.