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 nanodots (C-dots) have generated enormous excitement because of their superiority in water solubility, chemical inertness, low toxicity, ease of functionalization and resistance to photobleaching. In this review, by introducing the synthesis and photo- and electron-properties of C-dots, we hope to provide further insight into their controversial emission origin (particularly the upconverted photoluminescence) and to stimulate further research into their potential applications, especially in photocatalysis, energy conversion, optoelectronics, and sensing.

Carbon nanodots: synthesis, properties and applications

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs, C-dots or CDs), which are generally small carbon nanoparticles (less than 10 nm in size) with various unique properties, have found wide use in more and more fields during the last few years. In this feature article, we describe the recent progress in the field of CQDs, focusing on their synthetic methods, size control, modification strategies, photoelectric properties, luminescent mechanism, and applications in biomedicine, optronics, catalysis and sensor issues.

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Carbon quantum dots: synthesis, properties and applications

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

and Applications of Fullerenes, Carbon Dots, Nanotubes, Graphene, Nanodiamonds, and Combined Superstructures Vasilios Georgakilas,† Jason A. Perman,‡ Jiri Tucek,‡ and Radek Zboril*,‡ †Material Science Department, University of Patras, 26504 Rio Patras, Greece ‡Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials, Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Palacky University in Olomouc, 17 listopadu 1192/12, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic

Broad family of carbon nanoallotropes: classification, chemistry, and applications of fullerenes, carbon dots, nanotubes, graphene, nanodiamonds, and combined superstructures.

https://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/c1/c1cc11943e/c1cc11943e.pdf

Carbon nanodots as peroxidase mimetics and their applications to glucose detection

Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 derived nanoporous carbon as an effective and recyclable adsorbent for removal of ciprofloxacin antibiotics from water.

CoFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a peroxidase mimic mediated chemiluminescence for hydrogen peroxide and glucose.

Recently, the intrinsic enzyme-like activity of nanoparticles (NPs) has become a growing area of interest. Compared with natural enzymes, these enzyme-like NPs are stable against denaturing, low in cost, and highly resistant to high concentrations of substrate. These advantages make them promising in various applications. In this review, we focus on recent advances in NPs as enzyme mimetics and their analytical and environmental applications. We pay special attention to the enzyme-like activity of magnetic NPs, cerium-oxide NPs, noble-metal NPs, carbon and other nanomaterials.

Analytical and environmental applications of nanoparticles as enzyme mimetics

The nanozymes are a kind of synthetic nanomaterials with enzyme-like properties. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are an important class of inorganic–organic hybrid crystals. Their unique composition, structural diversity and size tailorability enable them to be promising for the construction of novel nanozymes. This review intends to summarize the recent advance for the construction of MOFs-based nanozymes and their primary applications in chemical sensing and biosensing. Based on their synthetical strategies, the MOFs-based nanozymes are categorized into four classes: pristine MOFs, MOFs with chemical modification, MOFs-based composites and MOF derivatives. In each categorization, the design and enzyme mimetic activity are discussed. Moreover, the analytical applications of these nanozymes are covered, such as the detection of H2O2, small biomolecules releasing H2O2, reductive small biomolecules, biomacromolecules, heavy metal ions, toxic metabolite of fungi, antibiotics, and so on. Finally, a summary and future perspective on the applications of MOFs-based nanozymes are briefly discussed.

Yuming Huang

Papers

Carbon nanodots as peroxidase mimetics and their applications to glucose detection

Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 derived nanoporous carbon as an effective and recyclable adsorbent for removal of ciprofloxacin antibiotics from water.

CoFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a peroxidase mimic mediated chemiluminescence for hydrogen peroxide and glucose.

Analytical and environmental applications of nanoparticles as enzyme mimetics

Recent advances in the construction and analytical applications of metal-organic frameworks-based nanozymes