ZrO2/CeO2/polyacrylic acid nanocomposites with alkaline phosphatase-like activity for sensing

In the present work, we synthesized ZrO 2 /CeO 2 /polyacrylic acid (PAA) nanocomposites (nanozyme) with phosphatase-like activity. ZrO 2 evenly distributed in CeO 2 nanorods considered as lewis acids to enhance the phosphatase-like activity of CeO 2 nanorods. Furthermore, PAA was used to coat ZrO 2 /CeO 2 / nanorods and improve the dispersion, stability and robustness. The ZrO 2 /CeO 2 /PAA nanocomposites had 100% enhanced phosphatase-like activity compared with CeO 2 nanorods and excellent adaptability in a wide pH range from 4.0 to 12.0. ZrO 2 /CeO 2 /PAA nanocomposites could hydrolyze methyl parathion (MP) to p -nitrophenol ( p -NP) with bright yellow color for colorimetric detection. The developed colorimetric detection system showed a linear response from 7.60 × 10 -11 -7.60 × 10 -8 M with a detection limit of 0.021 nM and was successfully applied for the determination of MP in corn samples.