Water-soluble pillar[6]arene functionalized PdPt porous core-shell octahedral nanodendrites to construct highly sensitive and robust neuron-specific enolase immunosensor by host-guest chemistry assisted catalytic amplification

Abstract In this work, water-soluble pillar[6]arene functionalized PdPt porous core-shell octahedral nanodendrites (WP6@PdPt PCONs) were simply synthesized and used for the fabrication of NSE immunosensor. The newest generation of macrocyclic host and biomimetic nano-enzymes have been effectively integrated to achieve the robust immobilization of signal molecules by host-guest molecular recognition and sensitively catalytic amplification of electrochemical signals. The addition of Pd and the formation of WP6@PdPt PCONs unique bimetallic nanostructure are beneficial to changing Pt-based catalyst electronic structure, accelerating the electron transport, promoting the generation of synergistic catalysis effect. Compared with enzyme-based methods, the fabricated sandwich-type immunosensor demonstrates more advantages in robustness owing to the introduction of host-guest chemistry and biomimetic nano-enzymes. In the wide range from 0.0003 to 100.00 ng mL −1 , a good linear relationship (R 2  = 0.998) and a low LOD (0.095 pg mL −1 , S/N = 3) can be obtained. The proposed immunosensor shows remarkable analytical performances in the measurements of selectivity, stability, reproducibility, and real sample analysis, which provided a promising approach for clinical detection of NSE in human serum. Besides, the successful synthesis of WP6@PdPt PCONs provides a new idea for the preparation of biosensors based on bionic materials, nanotechnology and host-guest molecule recognition.