Multifunctional Cu2Te/rGO Nanohybrid for Efficient Peroxidase-Mimic and Photocatalytic Water Remediation

In this work, we report one-pot synthesis of Cu2Te/rGO nanohybrid and investigation of its intrinsic peroxidase-like nanozyme activity and photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes. The synthesized nanohybrid, analysed by P-XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, and EDS, confirms the homogeneous anchoring of Cu2Te nanoparticles onto a reduced graphene oxide sheet, ensuring high dispersion and strong interfacial interaction. Cu2Te/rGO nanohybrid showed significantly enhanced peroxidase-like activities towards two chromogenic substrates, 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine and o-phenylenediamine, in the presence of H2O2, when it was compared with bare Cu2Te, and natural enzyme HRP. Michaelis-Menten kinetics of Cu2Te/rGO showed lower Km values (8.3 mM for TMB and 0.26 mM for H2O2) and higher Vmax values (1.32 × 10−6 M.s−1 for TMB, and 1.38 × 10−7 M.s−1 for H2O2) as compared to bare Cu2Te, indicating the improved substrate binding affinity and catalytic efficiency due to the synergistic effect of Cu2Te and rGO. A mechanistic study using terephthalic acid as a fluorescent probe and radical scavenger assay confirmed the generation of hydroxyl radical as the dominant reactive oxygen species for the catalytic activity of Cu2Te/rGO. The excellent detection of H2O2 with a low detection limit (0.34 μM), and a wide linear range (1–70 μM), demonstrates the strong potential of the Cu2Te/rGO nanohybrid as a sensitive and reliable colorimetric nanozyme for H₂O₂ detection. Furthermore, the Cu2Te/rGO nanohybrid showed superior photocatalytic performance under controlled UV lamp irradiation source and achieved significantly high efficiency degradation of Rhodamine B and Methylene blue with pseudo-first-order kinetics, with significant enhanced rate constant of Cu2Te/rGO as compared to the bare Cu2Te. Overall, Cu2Te/rGO nanohybrid showed a multifunctional catalyst with promising peroxidase-like activities and a sustainable approach towards the degradation of environmental pollutants.