Self-Assembly and Compartmentalization of Nanozymes in Mesoporous Silica-Based Nanoreactors

Herein, to mimic complex natural system, polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM)-coated mesoporous silica nanoreactors were used to compartmentalize two different artificial enzymes. PEMs coated on the surface of mesoporous silica could serve as a permeable membrane to control the flow of molecules. When assembling hemin on the surface of mesoporous silica, the hemin-based mesoporous silica system possessed remarkable peroxidase-like activity, especially at physiological pH, and could be recycled more easily than traditional graphene-hemin nanocompounds. The hope is that these new findings may pave the way for exploring novel nanoreactors to achieve compartmentalization of nanozymes and applying artificial cascade catalytic systems to mimic cell organelles or important biochemical transformations.