Chengzhou Zhu

Central China Normal University · College of Chemistry

Multiple enzyme‐induced cascade catalysis has an indispensable role in the process of complex life activities, and is widely used to construct robust biosensors for analyzing various targets. The immobilized multi‐enzyme cascade catalysis system is a novel biomimetic catalysis strategy that immobilizes various enzymes with different functions in st...

Efficient activation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through biomimetic catalysis still faces a major challenge. In this work, inspired by the catalytic pocket of natural peroxidase, Cu single atom (CuSA) and AuCu nanoparticles (AuCuNPs) anchored on nitrogen‐doped carbon skeleton (CuSA‐AuCuNPs/NC) serve as dual active sites that significantly accelerat...

The rational design of efficient catalysts for uric acid (UA) electrooxidation, as well as the establishment of structure‐activity relationships, remains a critical bottleneck in the field of electrochemical sensing. To address these challenges, herein, a hybrid catalyst that integrates carbon‐supported Pt nanoparticles and nitrogen‐coordinated Mn...

The rational design of efficient catalysts for uric acid (UA) electrooxidation, as well as the establishment of structure‐activity relationships, remains a critical bottleneck in the field of electrochemical sensing. To address these challenges, herein, a hybrid catalyst that integrates carbon‐supported Pt nanoparticles and nitrogen‐coordinated Mn...

Engineering isolated metal sites resembling the primary coordination sphere of metallocofactors enables atomically dispersed materials as promising nanozymes. However, most existing nanozymes primarily focus on replicating specific metallocofactors while neglecting other supporting cofactors within active pockets, leading to reduced electron transf...

Engineering isolated metal sites resembling the primary coordination sphere of metallocofactors enables atomically dispersed materials as promising nanozymes. However, most existing nanozymes primarily focus on replicating specific metallocofactors while neglecting other supporting cofactors within active pockets, leading to reduced electron transf...

Natural metalloenzymes with astonishing reaction activity and specificity underpin essential life transformations. Nevertheless, enzymes only operate under mild conditions to keep sophisticated structures active, limiting their potential applications. Artificial metalloenzymes that recapitulate the catalytic activity of enzymes can not only circumv...

Enzymatic catalysis with high efficiency allows them a great prospect in metabolite monitoring in living cells. However, complex tumor microenvironments, such as acidity, H2O2, and hypoxia, are bound to disturb catalytic reactions for misleading results. Here, we report a spatially compartmentalized artificial organelle to correct intratumoral gluc...

Enzymatic catalysis with high efficiency allows them a great prospect in metabolite monitoring in living cells. However, complex tumor microenvironments, such as acidity, H2O2, and hypoxia, are bound to disturb catalytic reactions for misleading results. Here, we report a spatially compartmentalized artificial organelle to correct intratumoral gluc...

Nanozymes with enzyme-like activity can perform catalytic reactions like enzymes. Nanozymes have been extensively used in biosensing, biomedicine, and other fields owing to their high stability, low cost, and various functions. Specifically, nanozymes that exhibit superior enzyme-like activity and specific physicochemical properties have progressiv...

Neurotoxicity of organophosphate compounds (OPs) can catastrophically cause nervous system injury by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) expression. Although artificial systems have been developed for indirect neuroprotection, they are limited to dissociating P-O bonds for eliminating OPs. However, these systems have failed to overcome the deact...

Semiconductor-based photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensors have garnered significant attention in the field of disease diagnosis and treatment. However, the recognition units of these biosensors are mainly limited to bioactive macromolecules, which hinder the photoelectric response due to their insulating characteristics. In this study, we develop a...

Self-powered sensing system (SPSS) integrating the enzymatic biofuel cell and biosensing platform has attracted tremendous interest. However, natural enzymes suffer from the intrinsic drawbacks of enzymes and enzymatic proteins. Nanozymes with enzyme-like activities are the ideal alternatives to enzymes, and it is greatly challenging to explore hig...

Non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) are a crucial component of organic photovoltaics, and they have gained significant attention due to their outstanding photoelectric conversion efficiency. However, the recognition reactions of specific building blocks in NFAs are largely overlooked in the construction of photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensing platforms...

Robust electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of carbon nitride (CN) requires efficient electron‐hole recombination and the suppression of electrode passivation. In this work, Au nanoparticles and single atoms (AuSA+NP) loaded on CN serve as dual active sites that significantly accelerate charge transfer and activate peroxydisulfate. Meanwhile, the well‐es...

Robust electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of carbon nitride (CN) requires efficient electron‐hole recombination and the suppression of electrode passivation. In this work, Au nanoparticles and single atoms (Au SA+NP ) loaded on CN serve as dual active sites that significantly accelerate charge transfer and activate peroxydisulfate. Meanwhile, the well‐...

Semiconductor‐based photoelectrochemical (PEC) fuel cells offer a feasible solution for sustainable and environmentally friendly energy production by converting solar and chemical energy into electrical energy. However, the low PEC activities of PEC fuel cells have hindered their practical application due to rapid electron‐hole recombination and sl...

The tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)32+)-tripropylamine anodic electrochemiluminescence (ECL) system has been widely applied in commercial bioanalysis. However, the presence of amine compounds in the biological environment results in unavoidable anodic interference signals, which hinder further extensive use of the system. In contrast, the ca...

Developing functional nanomaterials for nonenzymatic glucose electrochemical sensing platforms is vital and challenging from the perspective of pathology and physiology. Accurate identification of active sites and thorough investigation of catalytic mechanisms are critical prerequisites for the design of advanced catalysts for electrochemical sensi...

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) enzymatic biosensors have attracted widespread attention for their specificity and sensitivity, but the charge migration between an enzyme and a semiconductor remains uncertain. In this work, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was successfully immobilized on ionic liquid-functioned Cu@Cu2O (IL-Cu@Cu2O) aerogels to boost charge...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)‐involved tumor therapeutic strategy, chemodynamic therapy (CDT), has attracted extensive research interest in the scientific community. However, the therapeutic effect of CDT is insufficient and unsustainable owing to the limited endogenous H2O2 level in the tumor microenvironment. Here, peroxidase (POD)‐like RuTe2 nan...

Exploring advanced co‐reaction accelerators with superior oxygen reduction activity that generate rich reactive oxygen species (ROS) has attracted great attention in boosting luminol‐O2 electrochemiluminescence (ECL). However, tuning accelerators for efficient and selective catalytic O2 activation to switch anodic/cathodic ECL is very challenging....

Advances in the rational design of semiconductor-electrocatalyst photoelectrodes provide robust driving forces for improving energy conversion and quantitative analysis, while a deep understanding of elementary processes remains underwhelming due to the multistage interfaces involved in semiconductor/electrocatalyst/electrolyte. To address this bot...

Various applications lead to the requirement of nanozymes with either specific activity or multiple enzyme‐like activities. To this end, intelligent nanozymes with freely switching specificity abilities hold great promise to adapt to complicated and changeable practical conditions. Herein, a nitrogen‐doped carbon‐supported copper single‐atom nanozy...

Accelerating the migration of interfacial carriers in a heterojunction is of paramount importance for driving high-performance photoelectric responses. However, the inferior contact area and large resistance at the interface limit the eventual photoelectric performance. Herein, we fabricated an S-scheme heterojunction involving a 2D/2D dual-metallo...

The unsatisfactory catalytic activity of nanozymes owing to their inefficient electron transfer (ET) is the major challenge in biomimetic catalysis-related biomedical applications. Inspired by the photoelectron transfers in natural photoenzymes, we herein report a photonanozyme of single-atom Ru anchored on metal-organic frameworks (UiO-67-Ru) for...

A rational design of high-efficiency electrocatalysts and thus achieving sensitive electrochemical sensing remains a great challenge. In this work, single-atom indium anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon (In1-N-C) with an In-N4 configuration is prepared successfully through a high-temperature annealing strategy; the product can serve as an advanced el...

Exploring advanced co‐reaction accelerators with superior oxygen reduction activity that generate rich reactive oxygen species (ROS) has attracted great attention in boosting luminol‐O 2 electrochemiluminescence (ECL). However, tuning accelerators for efficient and selective catalytic O 2 activation to switch anodic/cathodic ECL is very challenging...

In conventional luminol electrochemiluminescence (ECL) systems, hydrogen peroxide and dissolved oxygen are employed as typical co‐reactants to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) for efficient ECL emission. However, the self‐decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and limited solubility of oxygen in water inevitably restrict the detection accuracy and...

As advanced electrochemical catalysts, single‐atom catalysts have made great progress in the field of catalysis and sensing due to their high atomic utilization efficiency and excellent catalytic performance. Herein, stannum‐doped copper oxide (CuOSn1) nanosheets with single‐site SnOCu pairs as active sites are synthesized as electrocatalysts for b...

Carrier migration path and driving forces are two crucial factors for charge separation of heterojunction with efficient photoelectric response from the thermodynamic and kinetic perspectives, respectively. Constructing the S-scheme heterojunction and achieving an efficient migration path for space charge separation have aroused great interest, whi...

In conventional luminol electrochemiluminescence (ECL) systems, hydrogen peroxide and dissolved oxygen are employed as typical co‐reactants to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) for efficient ECL emission. However, the self‐decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and limited solubility of oxygen in water inevitably restrict the detection accuracy and...

As recently developed two-dimensional (2D) materials, MXenes have attracted great attention in the fields of sensing, catalysis, energy, and electromagnetism due to their good electrical, mechanical, and optical properties and their biocompatibility. Their rich elemental composition, diverse surface functional groups and flexible bandgaps enable th...

Mimicking the structure of natural enzymes for designing advanced alternatives provides great opportunities to address the bottleneck of enzyme-involved chemiluminescence (CL). Herein, according to theoretical calculations, we found that an endogenous axial ligand of M-N-C single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes), originating from OH− spontaneously bonding...

Developing a self-checking photoelectrochemical biosensor with dual photocurrent signals could efficiently eliminate false-positive or false-negative signals. Herein, a novel biosensor with dual photocurrent responses was established for the detection of acetylcholinesterase activity. To achieve photocurrent polarity-switchable behavior, the iodide...

Developing highly active and selective advanced nanozymes for enzyme-mimicking catalysis remains a long-standing challenge for basic research and practical applications. Herein, we grafted a chiral histidine- (His-) coordinated copper core onto Zr-based metal-organic framework (MOF) basic backbones to structurally mirror the bimetal active site of...

Great efforts have been made to expand the application fields of nanozymes, which puts forward requirements for nanozymes with both superior catalytic activity and specificity. Herein, we reported the high-indexed intermetallic Pt3Sn (H-Pt3Sn) with high peroxidase-like activity and specificity. The resultant H-Pt3Sn exhibits a specific activity of...

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a characteristic serum biomarker for screening prostate cancer, which benefits the prostate cancer diagnosis at an early stage. At present, the reported strategies for PSA detection are mainly simplex signal readout, inevitably limiting the inherent accuracy and reliability of the involved bioassay. In this work,...

The development of advanced electrocatalysts with satisfactory C1 pathway selectivity for the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) is critical. Herein, a bubbling CO-induced gelation method is developed in acetic acid at 50 °C to construct single-atom W-doped Pd metallene aerogels (denoted as SA W-Pd MAs) within 1 h. In light of the metallene structura...

Immobilizing enzymes within metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) enables enzymes to against extreme environments. However, these MOF shells are just like armors, protective but heavy, which shield the enzymes from threats while locking them in the cage. The exploitation of immobilization strategy and intrinsic property of MOFs themselves is of great sig...

The large-scale application of nanozymes remains a significant challenge owing to their unsatisfactory catalytic performances. Featuring a unique electronic structure and coordination environment, single-atom nanozymes provide great opportunities to vividly mimic the specific metal catalytic center of natural enzymes and achieve superior enzyme-lik...

Developing effective electrocatalysts to achieve highly sensitive and selective detection of heavy metal ions is one of the challenges in the field of environmental monitoring. Herein, bismuth (Bi) metallene (Bi-ene) in atomic thickness is successfully synthesized and applied as a conceptual application in electrochemical sensors for the detection...

Substantial efforts have been devoted to closing the gap between the fragility of biocatalysts and their practical applications. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with operational stability, high loading capacity, and precisely tailored structure have been extensively studied in nanobiocatalysis to interact with biocatalysts, further tuning the catal...

The development of Fe single-atom catalysts is greatly impeded by their lower oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance in acid electrolytes when compared with Pt/C catalyst. Herein, we report an unprecedented ORR catalyst consisting of Pd nanoclusters (PdNC) and Fe single atoms (Fe–N–C/PdNC). Experimental investigations and theoretical calculati...

Rational design and construction of electrochemical sensing platforms with high sensitivity and selectivity is one of the challenges in practical application. Although single-atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted extensive attention, atomically dispersed metal catalysts (ADCs) with multi-atom sites can further compensate for the deficiencies of SACs...

With high activity and specificity to conduct catalysis under mild conditions, enzymes show great promise in many fields. However, they are not acclimatized to environments in practice after leaving the familiar biological conditions. Aiming at this issue, nanobiocatalysis, a fresh area integrating nanotechnology and enzymatic catalysis, is expecte...

Effective glucose surveillance provides a strong guarantee for the high-quality development of human health. Au nanomaterials possess compelling applications in nonenzymatic electrochemical glucose biosensors owing to superior catalytic performances and intriguing biocompatibility properties. However, it has been a grand challenge to accurately con...

Background Nanozymes are a kind of emerging nanomaterials that can mimic the catalytic activity of natural enzymes with good stability. Objective Benefited by the unique coordination structure and constitution, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely exploited as novel nanozymes. Importantly, various MOFs engineered with fascinating funct...

The conventional cathodic electrochemiluminescence (ECL) always requires a more negative potential to trigger strong emission, which inevitably damages the bioactivity of targets and decreases the sensitivity and specificity. In this work, iron single-atom catalysts (Fe-N-C SACs) were employed as an efficient co-reaction accelerator for the first t...

Developing enzyme-mimicking catalysts with high catalytic activity and specificity has been a long-standing challenge. Herein we report efficient laccase-mimicking catalysts (His-Cys-Cu) that consist of atomic Cu active centers and dipeptide-organized electron transfer pathway by simulating the catalytic process of natural enzymes, exhibiting high...

Compared with traditional laboratory-based tests, lateral flow immunoassay (LFA) has been developed as one of the emergent and popularly used rapid detection technology. Due to unique physical and chemical properties, novel nanomaterials have been widely used as the signal label in LFA for the detection of analytes, but these assays merit further d...

Ammonia (NH 3) is mainly produced through the traditional Haber-Bosch process under harsh conditions with huge energy consumption and massive carbon dioxide (CO 2) emission. The nitrogen electroreduction reaction (NERR), as an energy-efficient and environment-friendly process of converting nitrogen (N 2) to NH 3 under ambient conditions, has been r...

The elaborate design and fabrication of nanomaterials to mimic natural enzyme-catalyzed active sites is a promising approach to significantly improve catalytic performances, which is beneficial to the signal amplification for biosensing applications. Metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) with tailorable components, structures and well-distributed metal s...

Cell-free enzymatic catalysis (CFEC) is emerging biotechnology that simulates biological transformations without living cells. However, the high cost of separation and preparation of the enzyme has hindered the practical application of the CFEC. Enzyme immobilization technologies using solid supports to stabilize enzymes have been regarded as an ef...

Although great progress has been made in nanozymes, their large-scale application still remains a huge challenge due to their unsatisfactory catalytic performances. Featuring unique electronic structure and coordination environment, single atoms nanozymes provide great opportunities to vividly mimic the specific metal catalytic center of natural en...

Dual-band electrochromism is a phenomenon where materials can independently regulate the transmittance of visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) light. Owing to their bistability, low energy consumption, and independent control over VIS and NIR regions, dual-band electrochromic (EC) devices have been of great significance to fully harnessing VIS and...

Zeolite imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67)-derived layered double hydroxides (LDH) via hydrolysis reaction have aroused widespread interest for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), while the role of the electron-deficient 2-methylimidazole (MIM) of ZIF-67...

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) enzymatic biosensors integrate the excellent selectivity of enzymes and high sensitivity of PEC bioanalysis, but the drawbacks such as high cost, poor stability, and tedious immobilization of natural enzymes on photoelectrodes severely suppress their applications. AgCu@CuO aerogel-based photoelectrode materials with both...

Fe-based single-atomic site catalysts (SASCs), with the natural metalloproteases-like active site structure, have attracted widespread attention in biocatalysis and biosensing. Precisely, controlling the isolated single-atom Fe-N-C active site structure is crucial to improve the SASCs’ performance. In this work, we use a facile ion-imprinting metho...

Metal-organic framework (MOF)-based materials are regarded as potential electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) resulting from the abundant pore structures, large surface area and atomically dispersed metal centers, while their coordinately saturated metal nodes are inert to electrocatalysis. In this work, creating active sites while a...

Due to the high stability, various synthesis strategies, low cost, and tunable performance, nanozymes have gained much attention as the replacement of natural enzymes. To widen the application, highly active, specific, and robust nanozymes are in need. Recently, defects in nanomaterials have been verified to play a significant role in enhancing cat...

The development of highly active biomimetic catalysts with peroxidase (POD)-like activity and realization of vivid mimicking of the active sites of natural enzymes still remains a huge challenge. Herein, atomically dispersed Fe atoms on hierarchically S/N co-doped porous carbon (FeSNC) featured with the unsymmetrically coordinated Fe-N3S1 as active...

In recent years, a new type of quasi-one-dimensional graphene-based material, graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), has attracted increasing attention. The limited domain width and rich edge configurations of GNRs endow them with unique properties and wide applications in comparison to two-dimensional graphene. This review article mainly focuses on the elec...