The valine-based N-doped carbon dots with high peroxidase-like activity

Developing artificial nanoparticles with peroxidase-like activity have attracted great interests because their catalytic activity is not easy to lose under harsh conditions compared with natural enzymes. In this work, the N-doped carbon dots (CDs) were prepared; it was found that the N-doped CDs showed high peroxidase-like catalytic activity towards the reaction system of hydrogen peroxide:3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB). The catalytic mechanism of the N-doped CDs was explored using electron spin resonance spectra, cyclic voltammetry methods and simulation of density functional theory calculations. This work can offer a new feasible method for synthesizing N-doped carbon quantum dots used as artificial peroxidases in biological and environment applications.