Bioinspired Coassembly of Copper Ions and Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotides for Single-Site Nanozyme with Dual Catalytic Functions

Abstract

Nanozymes can imitate the catalytic properties of natural enzymes while overcoming the limitations of natural enzymes such as high cost, poor robustness, and difficulty in recycling. However, rational design and facile preparation of nanozymes are still in demand. Inspired by the chemical structure of laccase, we report an amorphous metal–organic coordination nanocomposite named CuNAD, which is composed of copper ions and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD + ) via a simple coordinating coassembly process. As a single-site nanozyme, CuNAD exhibits excellent robustness under extreme conditions, significantly stronger catalytic activity for phenolic compounds, and 4.02-fold higher sensitivity for epinephrine detection than laccase. Furthermore, by breaking through the functional constraints of laccase, CuNAD is also able to activate H 2 O 2 at neutral pH, benefiting a one-step chromogenic detection platform for cholesterol. This facile approach demonstrates the potential to develop single-site nanozymes by biomimicking natural enzymes and may boost more insights into the structure–function relationship of nanozymes.