Analytical and environmental applications of nanoparticles as enzyme mimetics

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. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.