Silver-palladium bimetallic nanoparticles stabilized by elm pod polysaccharide with peroxidase-like properties for glutathione detection and photothermal anti-tumor ability

Noble metal nanoparticles show good application prospects in biosensors and anti-tumor drug research. Herein, the near-spherical silver‑palladium bimetallic nanoparticles supported by elm pod polysaccharide (EPP-AgPd1.5 NPs) were prepared by using the elm pod polysaccharide (EPP). EPP acts as a stabilizer and reducing agent due to its water solubility and weak reducing ability. The particle size of EPP-AgPd1.5 NPs was 33.6 ± 5.5 nm. In addition, EPP-AgPd1.5 NPs had peroxidase-like activity to catalyze 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to oxidized TMB by catalyzing H2O2 to OH. Based on the peroxidase-like activity of EPP-AgPd1.5 NPs, a method for detecting glutathione was established, and the detection limit and linear range of glutathione concentration were 0.279 μM and 0–400 μM, respectively. More importantly, the photothermal conversion efficiency of EPP-AgPd1.5 NPs reached 39.7 %, and their inhibition rate in HeLa cells reached 69.9 %. Silver‑palladium bimetallic nanoparticles stabilized by EPP had good performance in glutathione detection and anti-tumor drugs.