Over the past few decades, researchers have established artificial enzymes as highly stable and low-cost alternatives to natural enzymes in a wide range of applications. A variety of materials including cyclodextrins, metal complexes, porphyrins, polymers, dendrimers and biomolecules have been extensively explored to mimic the structures and functions of naturally occurring enzymes. Recently, some nanomaterials have been found to exhibit unexpected enzyme-like activities, and great advances have been made in this area due to the tremendous progress in nano-research and the unique characteristics of nanomaterials. To highlight the progress in the field of nanomaterial-based artificial enzymes (nanozymes), this review discusses various nanomaterials that have been explored to mimic different kinds of enzymes. We cover their kinetics, mechanisms and applications in numerous fields, from biosensing and immunoassays, to stem cell growth and pollutant removal. We also summarize several approaches to tune the activities of nanozymes. Finally, we make comparisons between nanozymes and other catalytic materials (other artificial enzymes, natural enzymes, organic catalysts and nanomaterial-based catalysts) and address the current challenges and future directions (302 references).

Nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics (nanozymes): next-generation artificial enzymes

Carbon nanotube–polymer composites: Chemistry, processing, mechanical and electrical properties

Because of the high catalytic activities and substrate specificity, natural enzymes have been widely used in industrial, medical, and biological fields, etc. Although promising, they often suffer from intrinsic shortcomings such as high cost, low operational stability, and difficulties of recycling. To overcome these shortcomings, researchers have been devoted to the exploration of artificial enzyme mimics for a long time. Since the discovery of ferromagnetic nanoparticles with intrinsic horseradish peroxidase-like activity in 2007, a large amount of studies on nanozymes have been constantly emerging in the next decade. Nanozymes are one kind of nanomaterials with enzymatic catalytic properties. Compared with natural enzymes, nanozymes have the advantages such as low cost, high stability and durability, which have been widely used in industrial, medical, and biological fields. A thorough understanding of the possible catalytic mechanisms will contribute to the development of novel and high-efficient nanozymes, and the rational regulations of the activities of nanozymes are of great significance. In this review, we systematically introduce the classification, catalytic mechanism, activity regulation as well as recent research progress of nanozymes in the field of biosensing, environmental protection, and disease treatments, etc. in the past years. We also propose the current challenges of nanozymes as well as their future research focus. We anticipate this review may be of significance for the field to understand the properties of nanozymes and the development of novel nanomaterials with enzyme mimicking activities.

Nanozymes: Classification, Catalytic Mechanisms, Activity Regulation, and Applications

The stability of two-dimensional (2D) layers and membranes is subject of a long standing theoretical debate. According to the so called Mermin-Wagner theorem, long wavelength fluctuations destroy the long-range order for 2D crystals. Similarly, 2D membranes embedded in a 3D space have a tendency to be crumpled. These dangerous fluctuations can, however, be suppressed by anharmonic coupling between bending and stretching modes making that a two-dimensional membrane can exist but should present strong height fluctuations. The discovery of graphene, the first truly 2D crystal and the recent experimental observation of ripples in freely hanging graphene makes these issues especially important. Beside the academic interest, understanding the mechanisms of stability of graphene is crucial for understanding electronic transport in this material that is attracting so much interest for its unusual Dirac spectrum and electronic properties. Here we address the nature of these height fluctuations by means of straightforward atomistic Monte Carlo simulations based on a very accurate many-body interatomic potential for carbon. We find that ripples spontaneously appear due to thermal fluctuations with a size distribution peaked around 70 \AA which is compatible with experimental findings (50-100 \AA) but not with the current understanding of stability of flexible membranes. This unexpected result seems to be due to the multiplicity of chemical bonding in carbon.

Intrinsic ripples in graphene

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) as a rising star of carbon nanomaterials, by virtue of their unique physicochemical, optical and electronic properties, have displayed tremendous momentum in numerous fields such as biosensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, optoelectronics, photovoltaics and photocatalysis. In particular, the rich optical and electronic properties of CQDs including efficient light harvesting, tunable photoluminescence (PL), extraordinary up-converted photoluminescence (UCPL) and outstanding photoinduced electron transfer have attracted considerable interest in different photocatalytic applications for the sake of full utilization of the solar spectrum. This review aims to demonstrate the recent progress in the synthesis, properties and photocatalytic applications of CQDs, particularly highlighting the fundamental multifaceted roles of CQDs in photoredox processes. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and future direction of CQD-based materials in this booming research field, with a perspective toward the ultimate achievement of highly efficient and long-term stable CQD-based photocatalysts.

Recent progress in carbon quantum dots: synthesis, properties and applications in photocatalysis

Inorganic nanomaterials that mimic enzymes are fascinating as they potentially have improved properties relative to native enzymes, such as greater resistance to extremes of pH and temperature and lower sensitivity to proteases. Although many artificial enzymes have been investigated, searching for highly-efficient and stable catalysts is still of great interest. In this paper, we first demonstrated that bovine serum albumin (BSA)-stabilized MnO(2) nanoparticles (NPs) exhibited highly peroxidase-, oxidase-, and catalase-like activities. The activities of the BSA-MnO(2) NPs were evaluated using the typical horseradish peroxidase (HRP) substrates o-phenylenediamine (OPD) and 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of either hydrogen peroxide or dissolved oxygen. These small-sized BSA-MnO(2) NPs with good dispersion, solubility and biocompatibility exhibited typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics and high affinity for H(2)O(2), OPD and TMB, indicating that BSA-MnO(2) NPs can be used as satisfactory enzyme mimics. Based on these findings, BSA-MnO(2) NPs were used as colorimetric immunoassay tags for the detection of goat anti-human IgG in place of HRP. The colorimetric immunoassay using BSA-MnO(2) NPs has the advantages of being fast, robust, inexpensive, easily prepared and with no HRP and H(2)O(2) being needed. These water-soluble BSA-MnO(2) NPs may have promising potential applications in biotechnology, bioassays, and biomedicine.

BSA-templated MnO2 nanoparticles as both peroxidase and oxidase mimics

Carbon nanodots (C-Dots) as a new form of carbonaceous nanomaterials have aroused much interest and intensive research due to their inspiring properties. Compared to traditional semiconductor quantum dots, these newly emergent nanodots possess a number of advantageous characteristics, among which low-toxicity is particularly fascinating. More and more research into C-Dots have focused on synthesis methods and biology-related applications. Microwave-assisted approaches have attracted attention because microwave treatment can provide intensive and efficient energy, and as a consequence shorten the reaction time. In this article, we designed a “green”, rapid, eco-friendly and waste-reused approach to synthesize fluorescent and water-soluble C-Dots from eggshell membrane (ESM) ashes according to a microwave-assisted process. ESM selected as the carbon source was a common protein-rich waste in daily life and can be obtained easily and cheaply. The C-Dots from our method showed the maximal fluorescence emission peak at 450 nm and the fluorescence quantum yield was about 14%. We further designed a sensitive probe for glutathione based on the fluorescence turn off and on of the C-Dots–Cu2+ system, which showed a linear range of 0.5–80 μmol L−1 and detection limit of 0.48 μmol L−1. In general, the C-Dots prepared briefly and inexpensively from ESM revealed excellent fluorescent property with promising potential for applications such as sample detection and biotechnology.

Microwave-assisted synthesis of carbon nanodots through an eggshell membrane and their fluorescent application.

Current advances and future perspectives of additive manufacturing for functional polymeric materials and devices

In this paper, a novel and simple colorimetric method for the determination of glutathione (GSH) was developed. The BSA–MnO2 NPs possess oxidase-like activity that can catalyze the oxidization of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), and the existence of GSH can cause reduction of oxidized TMB along with a visual color variation. A good linear relationship can be obtained from 0.26 to 26 μM with a limit of detection of 0.1 μM. Furthermore, the good recoveries for serum samples indicated that the present colorimetric methodology was feasible, simple and sensitive, with a promising application in routine analysis of biosamples.

Qi Wang

Papers

BSA-templated MnO2 nanoparticles as both peroxidase and oxidase mimics

Microwave-assisted synthesis of carbon nanodots through an eggshell membrane and their fluorescent application.

Current advances and future perspectives of additive manufacturing for functional polymeric materials and devices

Colorimetric detection of glutathione in human blood serum based on the reduction of oxidized TMB

The cutting of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and their strong interfacial interaction with polyamide 6 in the solid state