Enhanced Enzyme-like Activity in Bimetallic Cu-Co Prussian Blue Analogues: Highly Sensitive Glucose Detection and Efficient Antibacterial Applications

Recent years have witnessed growing focus on bimetallic Prussian blue analogs (PBAs) within the cross-disciplinary research areas of materials science and biomedicine. These materials possess a range of favorable properties, including an open framework structure, inherent catalytic activity, excellent biocompatibility, and tunable structural characteristics. Within the current research, a Cu–Co bimetallic Prussian blue analogue (Cu–Co PBA) with a characteristic framework structure was effectively fabricated via a straightforward low-temperature co-precipitation approach. Owing to its cost-effectiveness, high stability, straightforward preparation, and the synergistic interaction between Cu ²⁺ and Co ²⁺ ions, Cu–Co PBA shows significant potential as a multifunctional nanozyme and catalytic material. The catalyst demonstrates exceptionally high peroxidase-mimicking activity as a result of the synergistic interaction between the coexisting Cu ⁺ /Cu ²⁺ and Co ²⁺ /Co ³⁺ redox pairs within the system. This synergy facilitates electron transfer and remarkably boosts the catalytic decomposition efficiency of H₂O₂. Cu–Co PBA shows catalytic activity several times higher than single Cu-PBA or Co-PBA, thus improving glucose detection sensitivity and accelerating response kinetics, with a linear detection range of 10 µM–2000 µM and a low limit of detection of 2 µM. Moreover, Cu–Co PBA nanoparticles achieve efficient chemodynamic antibacterial performance by catalyzing H₂O₂ to produce hydroxyl radicals (·OH), which destroy bacterial cell structures and endow broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. The inhibition rates for Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli are 99.05% and 98.92%, respectively. This work integrates glucose detection and antibacterial treatment through the enzyme-like and Catalytic performance of bimetallic Prussian blue nanozymes, offering a promising multifunctional platform for biomedical applications.