Nanoclay Modulates Cation Occupancy in Manganese Ferrite for Catalytic Antibacterial Treatment

Controllable preparation is the current frontier in the field of inorganic nanomaterial-based artificial enzymes (nanozymes). For ferrites, the factors affecting cation occupancy are very complex, making the modulation of cation occupancy extremely challenging. Herein, we report a new strategy to modulate the cation occupancy of manganese ferrite (MFO) based on the structural properties of nanoclay (i.e., montmorillonite K10). It demonstrates that montmorillonite K10 mainly changes the valence state and occupancy of manganese ions in manganese ferrite and not iron ions. K10 increases the proportion of Mn (II) in manganese ferrite and causes more manganese ions to migrate to the tetrahedral sites. As expected, the prepared new inorganic compound possesses excellent enzyme-like catalytic activities and antibacterial functional properties, which are attributed to Mn (II) accelerating Fe (III) reduction and hydroxyl radical formation. Furthermore, steady-state kinetic assays are used to study the reaction mechanism in detail. In vitro and in vivo antibacterial experiments show that the synthesized inorganic compounds exhibit satisfactory disinfection and wound skin recovery efficiencies. This work emphasizes the controllable preparation of new inorganic compounds with biomimetic activity and provides novel insight into the biological effects of inorganic nanomaterials.