Chemiluminescent magnetic nanoparticles with good catalytic activity and rapid separation capability and sensitive sensing for H(2)O(2)

It is of considerable importance to develop chemiluminescent functionalized nanomaterials (CF-NMs) with good catalytic activity, high chemiluminescence (CL) efficiency and good stability, and rapid magnetic separation capability, achieving excellent performance in CL biosensing. In this study, N-(4-aminobutyl)-N-ethylisoluminol (ABEI)-functionalized CuFe(2)O(4) magnetic nanomaterial (ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4)) with high catalytic activity was synthesized by virtue of a solvothermal and post-functionalization method. ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4) showed outstanding CL properties, superior to ABEI-CuFe(2)O(4) in liquid phase. This reveals that the immobilization of ABEI on the surface of CuFe(2)O(4) exhibits unique heterogeneous catalytic property. The catalytic ability of CuFe(2)O(4) was better than that of CoFe(2)O(4), ZnFe(2)O(4), MnFe(2)O(4), and NiFe(2)O(4). It is suggested that the peroxide-like activity as well as Cu(2+) and Cu(0) enriched on the surface of ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4) opened up a dual route for synergistic catalysis of H(2)O(2). ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4) also demonstrated good superparamagnetism and magnetic separation could be carried out in 2 min, which is advantageous for the separation and purification of ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4) during the synthetic procedures and bioassays. Owing to the sensitive response of ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4) to H(2)O(2), an enzyme-free sensor was developed for the detection of H(2)O(2) with a wide linear range over 5 orders of magnitude of H(2)O(2) concentrations and a low detection limit of 5.6 nM. The as-developed sensor is sensitive, stable, and convenient. This work provides a new family member of nanomaterials with good magnetism and CL activity as well as good stability. The developed ABEI/CuFe(2)O(4) shows great prospects in biocatalysis, bioassays, biosensing, and bioimaging, etc. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00216-021-03597-w.