Nanocatalysts Built on Polypeptide Hybrid Materials: Towards Catalytic Versatility and Material Integration

Nanozymes and many other types of nanocatalysts are emerging nanomaterials exhibiting high catalytic activity and robustness. Compared to natural enzymes, nanocatalysts have demonstrated advantages including cost-effectiveness, remarkable stability, and excellent durability. Yet, despite the substantial progress, nanocatalysts, especially nanozymes, are still facing critical limitations in catalytic diversity and material processability. In this article, we report a polypeptide-fused silica nanoparticle platform through an autocatalytic preparation strategy to simultaneously address both challenges. This nanocatalyst development system not only achieves the first example of nanocatalyst-mediated polypeptide synthesis, but also extends nanozymes' application scenarios to intracellular catalysis and membrane catalysis systems, expanding catalytic functionality while enabling convenient integration into other functional materials by improving nanozymes' processibility, as evidenced in the preparation and proof-of-concept application of nanozyme-bearing mix-matrix membranes (MMMs).