Electrochemistry and biosensing of glucose oxidase based on mesoporous carbons with different spatially ordered dimensions

A strategy of protein entrapment within mesoporous carbon matrices is demonstrated to probe the electrochemistry of glucose oxidase. Large surface area and remarkable electro-catalytic properties of carbon mesoporous materials make them suitable candidates for high loading of protein molecules and the promotion of heterogeneous electron transfer. In this work, two kinds of mesoporous carbon nanocomposite films were designed and prepared with highly ordered two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) structures for the immobilization of glucose oxidase, in which the quasi-reversible electron transfer of the redox enzyme was probed, and the apparent heterogeneous electron transfer rate constants (ket0) are 3.9 and 4.2 s−1, respectively. Furthermore, the associated biocatalytic activity was also revealed. Highly ordered 3D-mesoporous carbon material exhibited larger adsorption capacity for glucose oxidase and the immobilized enzymes retained a higher bioactivity compared with 2D-mesoporous carbons. The preparation of protein-entrapped mesoporous carbon nanocomposites expands the scope of carbon-based electrochemical devices and opens a new avenue for the development of biosensors.