Defect-Engineered Nanozyme-Linked Receptors

Though nanozymes are successfully applied in various areas, the increasing demands facilitate the exploitation of nanozymes possessing higher activity and more functions. Natural enzyme-linked receptors (ELRs) are critical components for signal transductions in vivo by expressing activity variations after binding with ligands. Inspired by this, the defect-engineered carbon nitrides (DCN) are reported to serve as nanozyme-linked receptors (NLRs). For one thing, cyano defects increase the enzyme-like activity by a factor of 109.5. For another, DCN-based NLRs are constructed by employing cyano groups as receptors, and variable outputs are ensued upon the addition of ion ligands. Significantly, both the cascade effect and electronic effect are demonstrated to contribute to this phenomenon. Finally, NLRs are used for pattern recognition of metal ions, indicating the signal transduction ability of NLRs as well. This work not only provides great promise of defect engineering in nanozymes, but also contributes to the design of artificial ELRs.

Automated summary

Defect-engineered carbon nitrides (DCN) are utilized as nanozyme-linked receptors (NLRs) to achieve higher activity and more functions, showing the contributions of cascade effect and electronic effect in signal transduction. This work not only offers great promise for defect engineering in nanozymes, but also contributes to the design of artificial ELRs by utilizing cyano defects and groups as receptors, providing a reference for pattern recognition of metal ions through NLRs.