Nanozyme: Synthesis, Mechanisms, and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Natural phenomena are associated with enzymes, including many proteases with non-metal or metal as their catalytically active center (cofactor), which contribute to the efficiency of biochemical reactions and play a role in maintaining normal activities in living systems on Earth. Nanozymes are nanomaterials with enzyme-mimicking activities. Nanozymes are advantageous compared to natural enzymes due to their low cost, high stability, and long-term resistance to harsh conditions, and to date, numerous nanomaterials have been reported with enzyme-mimicking activities, such as Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles, noble metal nanoparticles, carbon nanostructures, metal–organic frameworks, etc. The enzymatic activities of nanozymes are usually associated with many factors, such as shape, facet, size, and even surface properties of nanomaterials. Thus, the development of nanozymes mainly relies on trial-and-error strategies, and our understanding of their mechanisms and the rules guiding their synthesis is limited. This greatly compromises the development of highly active and selective nanozymes.

To meet these challenges, the rational design of high-performance nanozymes is extremely important. The aim of this issue is to showcase unique enzyme-mimicking activities, explore solutions improving the catalytic ability of nanozymes, and study the mechanisms of catalytic reactions of nanozymes. By collecting knowledge in this field and covering a large number of synthesis methods and nanozyme applications, we aim to increase their scientific and commercial value in the field of cancer treatment, biosensing/imaging, antibacteria, ROS scavengers, environmental protection, heterogeneous catalysis, and enzymatic catalysis. Topics of interest may be related to the following areas:

1. Synthetic strategies and applications of various enzyme-mimicking nanomaterials;
2. Precise tailoring of the enzymatic activities of nanozymes;
3. Mechanism understanding of nanozymes;
4. Structural identification of nanozymes;
5. DFT calculations of nanozymes;
6. Single-atomic nanozymes.

Dr. Dongdong Wang
Dr. Jiawei Liu
Guest Editors

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• nanozymes
• enzyme-mimicking
• artificial enzymes
• cancer treatment
• biosensing/imaging
• antibacteria
• ROS scavenger
• pollutant elimination
• enzymatic catalysis
• advanced catalysis