Vanadium Single Atoms Embedded in MoS2 Enabled Gut‐Brain Axis Neurotransmitter Detection at pM Levels

Abstract

AbstractThe detection of monoamine neurotransmitters is of paramount importance as the neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers regulating the gut‐brain axis (GBA). It requires real‐time, ultrasensitive, and selective sensing of the neurotransmitters in the gastric/intestinal fluid. However, multi‐components present in the gastric/intestinal fluid make sensing challenging to achieve in terms of ultra‐high sensitivity and selectivity. Herein, an approach is introduced to utilize vanadium single atom catalytic (SAC) centers in van der Waals MoS2 (V‐MoS2) to selectively detect real‐time serotonin (5‐HT) in artificial gastric/intestinal fluid. The synergetic effect of V‐SACs and the surface S‐bonds on the MoS2 surface, enables an extremely wide range of 5‐HT detection (from 1 pM to 100 µM), with optimum selectivity and interference resistance. By combining density functional theory calculations and scanning transmission electron microscopy, it is concluded that the V‐SACs embedded in the MoS2 network create active sites that greatly facilitate the charge exchange between the material and the 5‐HT molecules. This result allows the 5‐HT detection in GBA studies to be more reliable, and the material tunability provides a general platform to achieve real‐time and multi‐component detection of other monoamine neurotransmitters in GBA such as dopamine and norepinephrine.