What Are Nanozymes?
Nanozymes are generally described as nanomaterials that can catalyze the same kinds of reactions natural enzymes do. They are engineered to resemble enzymatic behavior in how they bind substrates, accelerate reactions, and follow recognizable kinetic patterns. Common examples include iron oxide particles with peroxidase-like behavior and cerium oxide that toggles between redox states to mimic catalase or superoxide dismutase. Researchers typically design their size, shape, and surface chemistry to tune activity and improve compatibility with biological conditions.
Nanozymes are nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity, engineered to catalyze biological reactions under controllable conditions.
How Nanozymes Catalyze Reactions
Most reported nanozymes emulate familiar enzyme classes, especially peroxidases, oxidases, catalases, and superoxide dismutases. Peroxidase-like systems often proceed through Fenton-type pathways or related redox cycles that generate reactive intermediates from hydrogen peroxide. Defects, dopants, oxygen vacancies, and surface ligands can shift activity, and light or pH can further modulate rates. A fast-growing branch uses single-atom active sites to improve selectivity and approach enzyme-like turnover efficiencies. These trends suggest the “active site” concept from enzymes is increasingly applicable at the nanoscale.
Their activities commonly emulate peroxidase, oxidase, catalase, and SOD functions via Fenton-type and defect-mediated pathways, increasingly at single-atom sites.
Where Nanozymes Are Being Used
In biomedicine, nanozymes are being explored for biosensors, antibacterial coatings, and adjunct cancer therapies that modulate reactive oxygen species. In diagnostics, peroxidase-like nanozymes can replace fragile enzymes in colorimetric assays, while cerium-based systems may scavenge oxidative stress in inflammation models. Antimicrobial uses often combine catalytic ROS generation with photothermal or ion-release effects to disrupt biofilms. Beyond healthcare, environmental sensing and pollutant degradation are plausible areas given their robustness and tunability. That said, many demonstrations remain preclinical or proof-of-concept.
These properties enable promising biosensing, antibacterial, therapeutic, and environmental applications, though most remain preclinical.
Strengths, Risks, and Open Challenges
Compared with proteins, nanozymes may offer greater stability to heat, pH, and solvents, and they can be mass-produced from relatively inexpensive materials. Designers can, at least in principle, fine-tune activity by adjusting particle size, support frameworks (e.g., MOFs), or single-atom centers. However, achieving enzyme-level selectivity in complex fluids, managing potential toxicity, and standardizing activity units across labs remain active hurdles. Long-term fate, immune interactions, and batch-to-batch reproducibility are also being studied before clinical translation. Overall, the field appears promising but not risk-free.
Compared with natural enzymes, nanozymes tend to be more robust and tunable but face open questions around selectivity, in vivo safety, and standardization.
Why This May Matter to You
If you build sensors, materials, or therapeutics, nanozymes could offer sturdier catalytic components and new ways to control redox chemistry. Understanding their mechanisms can guide smarter choices about materials, activation methods, and risk management. Teams evaluating diagnostics might prototype assays that swap fragile enzymes for nanozymes to improve shelf life and cost profiles. Meanwhile, tracking single-atom designs and defect engineering may help you anticipate performance gains and regulatory considerations.
Knowing how nanozymes work helps you judge near-term uses while tracking advances - especially single-atom designs - toward real-world adoption.
Helpful Links
Advanced Materials review on nanozymes (2024): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.202305249
Nature Communications overview (2025): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62063-8
Accounts of Materials Research on single-atom nanozymes (2024): https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/accountsmr.3c00250
APL Materials perspective on biomedical applications (2024): https://pubs.aip.org/aip/apm/article/12/10/100401/3315248/Nanozymes-for-biomedical-applications