An emerging direction for nanozyme design: from single-atom to dual-atomic-site catalysts

Abstract

Nanozymes, a new class of functional nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics, have recently made great achievements and have become potential substitutes for natural enzymes. In particular, single-atomic nanozymes (Sazymes) have received intense research focus on account of their versatile enzyme-like performances and well-defined spatial configurations of single-atomic sites. More recently, dual-atomic-site catalysts (DACs) containing two neighboring single-atomic sites have been explored as next-generation nanozymes, thanks to the flexibility in tuning active sites by various combinations of two single-atomic sites. This minireview outlines the research progress of DACs in their synthetic approaches and the latest characterization techniques highlighting a series of representative examples of DAC-based nanozymes. In the final remarks, we provide current challenges and perspectives for developing DAC-based nanozymes as a guide for researchers who would be interested in this exciting field.