Large scale and controllable preparation of W₂C nanorods or WC nanodots with peroxidase-like catalytic activity

W₂C nanorods or WC nanodots are prepared via an easy, shape-controllable and large-scale preparation technique. Results reveal that each of the W₂C nanorods and WC nanodots has a peroxidase-like activity. Besides, the peroxidase-like activity of W₂C is the first time to be demonstrated. The catalytic efficiency of W₂C nanorods is much higher than that of WC nanodots and chemical condition range of W₂C can be wider than that of WC, which indicates that W₂C is likely to be used as artificial mimetic peroxidase or in-situ amplified colorimetric immunoassay.