Ruthenium,nitrogen-codoped carbon aerogels for real-time electrochemical monitoring of cellular hydrogen peroxide release

Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is an important signaling molecule for diverse biological functions, and it is thus of importance to develop sensing platforms for real-time monitoring of cellular release of H 2 O 2 . Herein, a H 2 O 2 electrochemical sensor is constructed based on ruthenium,nitrogen-codoped carbon aerogels. The nanocomposites are prepared by controlled pyrolysis of a biomass hydrogel with RuCl 3 , where RuN x single-atom sites and Ru nanoclusters are incorporated into the aerogel scaffold, as confirmed by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. In cyclic voltammetry and amperometric analysis, the aerogels exhibit a remarkable H 2 O 2 detection performance, with excellent sensitivity and selectivity, wide linear range (0.1 μΜ ∼ 1 mM) and low detection limit (0.01 μM). The sensor can also be used for real-time monitoring of hydrogen peroxide released from MCF-7 cells and screening of anticancer drugs, displaying a high potential for biosensing and biomedical diagnostics.