Publications by authors named "Ruoli Zhao"
Article Synopsis
- Strain engineering is key for enhancing the electronic and catalytic properties of biocatalysts, but modifying atomic-scale strain for specific enzyme-like reactions remains a challenge.
- Researchers designed various configurations of platinum atoms on palladium-gold biocatalysts, finding that atomically-resolved platinum clusters improve catalytic activity through favorable atomic strain and increased active sites.
- The platinum clusters exhibit significantly enhanced peroxidase-like activity compared to natural enzymes, with implications for clinical applications in cancer diagnosis and reducing inflammation and oxidative stress.
Article Synopsis
- Excessive NADH levels in organisms are linked to several diseases, creating a need for efficient conversion to NAD.
- Researchers developed multi-metal atom nanozymes (MANs) that mimic natural enzymes to facilitate this conversion, with a focus on the RhCo MAN demonstrating effective oxidase-like activity.
- The RhCo MAN not only enhances NAD regeneration but also helps modulate macrophage polarization, potentially aiding in skin regeneration, while other variants show limited effectiveness in treating conditions like eczema.
Strong fluorescence and high catalytic activities cannot be achieved simultaneously due to conflicts in free electron utilization, resulting in a lack of bioactivity of most near-infrared-II (NIR-II) fluorophores. To circumvent this challenge, we developed atomically precise Au clusters with strong NIR-II fluorescence ranging from 950 to 1300 nm exhibiting potent enzyme-mimetic activities through atomic engineering to create active Cu single-atom sites. The developed AuCu clusters show 18-fold higher antioxidant, 90-fold higher catalase-like, and 3-fold higher superoxide dismutase-like activities than Au clusters, with negligible fluorescence loss.
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- Selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te) nanomaterials have unique chain-like structures and interesting properties but the unclear catalytic mechanisms hinder their biocatalytic advancements.
- * Researchers created chitosan-coated Se nanozymes that show 23 times more antioxidative activity compared to Trolox, while Te nanozymes demonstrated stronger prooxidative effects.
- * The study reveals that Se nanozymes help clear reactive oxygen species (ROS) using a specific mechanism, while Te nanozymes increase ROS production, affecting the survival of γ-irradiated mice differently by either inhibiting or promoting oxidation.
Natural enzymes are efficient and versatile biocatalysts but suffer in their environmental tolerance and catalytic stability. As artificial enzymes, nanozymes can improve the catalytic stability, but it is still a challenge to achieve high catalytic activity. Here, we employed atomic engineering to build the artificial enzyme named AuAg clusterzyme that hosts an ultrahigh catalytic activity as well as strong physiological stability via atom manipulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanozymes have been widely used as highly active and stable arterial enzymes due to their controllable electronic transfer and unique catalytic reaction route. However, the development of nanozymes is hindered by their ambiguous structure, insufficient activity and inadequate substrate selectivity. In comparison, single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes) hold superior catalytic activity 10-100 times higher than conventional nanozymes by maximizing the utilization of metal atom dispersion, and exhibit versatile catalytic selectivity through precisely adjusting the atom spatial configuration.
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