Reprogramming electron transfer at single-atom Pt sites to break the interference barrier in uric acid detection
Uric acid (UA) serves as a key biomarker for gout, cardiovascular disease, and kidney dysfunction, yet conventional detection methods relying on H 2 O 2 generation suffer from signal instability and interference from reductive species. Here, we report a uricase-like platinum-nitrogen-carbon nanozyme (Pt-N-C-NH 3 ) that redirects UA oxidation from a two-electron pathway toward a four-electron pathway. By decreasing graphitic nitrogen content, the local electronic microenvironment of platinum sites is modulated, which is associated with a lower calculated free-energy change for the rate-determining absorbed oxygen to absorbed hydroxyl transformation from 1.25 to 0.62 electron volts and thereby promoting oxygen reduction to water. Integrated into a microneedle sensing platform, UA is converted to allantoin for chemiluminescent readout. The sensor exhibits a wide linear range of 50.00 to 1000.00 μM and a detection limit of 15.86 μM, while maintaining 97.57% signal stability against reductive interferents. This work demonstrates that atomic-level coordination engineering enables programmable control over reaction pathways in artificial enzyme systems, thereby facilitating robust biosensing in complex biological environments.
Authors
- Qie Fang
- Chengzhou Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0679-7965)
- Wenling Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4926-5993)
- Ming Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2239-9342)
- Haifei Wan
- Zhengyi Chen
- Wenhong Yang
- Wenxuan Jiang
- Yinjun Tang
- Yifei Chen
- Mengxue Zhu
- Canglong Wang
- Ruimin Li
- Jingxin Chang
Institutions
- Northeast Normal University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Central China Normal University (CN)
- Institute of Modern Physics (CN)
- Wuhan Institute of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-11-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aef1075
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Nanomaterials in Catalysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00