A novel glucose colorimetric sensor based on intrinsic peroxidase-like activity of C60-carboxyfullerenes

•C60-carboxyfullerene C60[C(COOH)2]2 has been proven to function as peroxidase mimetics.•C60[C(COOH)2]2/glucose oxidase (GOx)/TMB system provides a novel colorimetric sensor for glucose.•The fabricated sensitive and selective sensor can be successfully applied for the quantitative determination of glucose in human serum.

C60-carboxyfullerene, C60[C(COOH)2]2, has been proven to function as peroxidase mimetics that can catalyze the reaction of peroxidase substrate 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of H2O2 to produce a blue color reaction. Kinetic studies further indicate that C60[C(COOH)2]2 has an even higher affinity to TMB than that of the natural enzyme, horseradish peroxidase (HRP). C60[C(COOH)2]2/glucose oxidase (GOx)/TMB system provides a novel colorimetric sensor for glucose and shows good response toward glucose detection over a range of 1.0–40 μM with a limit of detection 0.5 μM (3σ/slope). Moreover, this sensitive and selective sensor can be successfully applied for the quantitative determination of glucose in human serum. The results indicate that it is a simple, cheap, convenient, highly selective, sensitive, and easy handling colorimetric assay.