Ga/Zn Single-Atom Nanozyme-Based Colorimetric Sensor Array for High-Throughput Identification of Tetracyclines

The issue of tetracycline (TC) residues in the environment poses a serious threat to ecosystems and public health, therefore, there is an urgent need to develop efficient and convenient detection methods. This study successfully prepared Ga/Zn NC single-atom (SA) nanozymes with peroxidase-like catalytic activity. Based on the differential inhibitory effects of different TCs on the Ga/Zn NC SA nanozymes’ catalytic activity, a three-channel colorimetric sensor array is constructed by regulating the temperature, resulting in differentiated colorimetric response signals for TCs. Combined with linear discriminant analysis, the sensor array successfully achieved qualitative differentiation and quantitative analysis of seven TCs within the range of 1 nM to 100 μM. Further combining the sensor array with machine learning algorithms such as random forests, accurate identification and prediction of TCs in blind samples and various actual environmental samples have been achieved. The sensor array provides a new method for efficient differentiation and detection of TCs in complex samples, and has good application prospects in environmental monitoring and food safety fields.