Novel Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene nanozyme with manageable catalytic activity and application to electrochemical biosensor

In this work, Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene was identified as efficient nanozyme with area-dependent electrocatalytic activity in oxidation of phenolic compounds, which originated from the strong adsorption effect between the phenolic hydroxyl group and the oxygen atom on the surface of Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene flake. On the basis of the novel electrocatalytic activity, Ti(3)C(2)T(x) MXene was combined with alkaline phosphatase to construct a novel cascading catalytic amplification strategy using 1-naphthyl phosphate (1-NPP) as substrate, thereby realizing efficient electrochemical signal amplification. Taking advantage of the novel cascading catalytic amplification strategy, an electrochemical biosensor was fabricated for BCR/ABL fusion gene detection, which achieved excellent sensitivity with linear range from 0.2 fM to 20 nM and limit of detection down to 0.05 fM. This biosensor provided a promising tool for ultrasensitive fusion gene detection in early diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia. Moreover, the manageable catalytic activity of MXene broke a path for developing nanozymes, which possessed enormous application potential in not only electrochemical analysis but also the extensive fields including organic synthesis, pollutant disposal and so on. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-022-01317-9.