Stabilizing Carbonic Anhydrase at Elevated Temperatures via Amine-Functionalized Boron Nitride Nanosheets.

Capturing carbon dioxide (CO) remains a critical challenge in mitigating climate change due to its stability and low reactivity. Carbonic anhydrase (CA), a highly efficient enzyme capable of converting CO to bicarbonate at a turnover rate of up to 1 × 10 s, presents a promising solution for carbon capture and storage (CCS). However, its industrial application is limited by poor thermal and chemical stability, especially under harsh conditions such as those found in flue gas streams.

Modulating Electrical Double Layers: Facile Approach for Promoting Noncovalent Interactions between Boron Nitride Nanosheets and Gold Nanoparticles.

Electrical double layer (EDL) plays a crucial role in colloidal chemistry, which can be modified by changing the pH and ionic strength of a solution. Even though EDL is well-recognized, there are limited studies exploring interactions between two-dimensional (2D) and zero-dimensional nanoparticles. Herein, we demonstrate a simple pH-based approach to control the EDL of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that plays a crucial role in their interaction, displaying a one-way gate effect.

Enhancing Substrate Channeling with Multi-Enzyme Architectures in Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Frameworks.

Hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOF) represent an emerging category of organic structures with high crystallinity and metal-free, which are not commonly observed in alternative porous organic frameworks. These needle-like porous structure can help in stabilizing enzymes and allow transfer of molecules between enzymes participating in cascade reactions for enhanced substrate channelling. Herein, we systematically synthesized and investigated the stability of HOF at extreme conditions followed by one-pot encapsulation of single and bi-enzyme systems.

In Situ Immobilization of Multi-Enzymes for Enhanced Substrate Channeling of Enzyme Cascade Reactions: A Nanoarchitectonics Approach by Directed Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Rationally tailoring a controlled spatial organization of enzymes in a nanoarchitecture for multi-enzyme cascade reactions can enhance the catalytic efficiency via substrate channeling. However, attaining substrate channeling is a grand challenge, requiring sophisticated techniques. Herein, we report facile polymer-directed metal-organic framework (MOF)-based nanoarchitechtonics for realizing a desirable enzyme architecture with significantly enhanced substrate channeling.

Nucleic acid isothermal amplification-based soft nanoarchitectonics as an emerging electrochemical biosensing platform.

The emergence of nucleic acid isothermal amplification strategies based on soft nanoarchitectonics offers a new dimension to the traditional electrochemical technique, particularly because of its flexibility, high efficiency, and increased sensitivity for analytical applications. Various DNA/RNA isothermal amplification strategies have been developed for the design and fabrication of new electrochemical biosensors for efficient and important biomolecular detection. Herein, we provide an overview of recent efforts in this research field and the strategies for signal-amplified sensing systems, with their biological applications, current challenges and prospects in this promising new area.

2D Active Nanobots Based on Soft Nanoarchitectonics Powered by an Ultralow Fuel Concentration.

Enzyme catalysis to power micro/nanomotors has received tremendous attention because of the vast potential in applications ranging from biomedicine to environmental remediation. However, the current design is mainly based on a complex three-dimensional (3D) architecture, with limited accessible surface areas for the catalytic sites, and thus requires a higher fuel concentration to achieve active motion. Herein we report for the first time an enzyme-powered 2D nanobot, which was designed by a facile strategy based on soft nanoarchitectonics for active motion at an ultralow fuel concentration (0.

Mechanochemistry: A force in disguise and conditional effects towards chemical reactions.

Mechanochemistry refers to unusual chemical reactions induced by mechanical energy at room temperatures. It has attracted increased attention because of advantages, such as being a solution-free, energy saving, high-productivity and low-temperature process. However, there is limited understanding of the mechanochemical process because mechanochemistry is often conducted using closed milling devices, which are often regarded as a black box.

Supramolecular nanomotors with "pH taxis" for active drug delivery in the tumor microenvironment.

Self-propelled nanomotors demonstrating autonomous motion in biologically relevant fuel are currently being studied to overcome the use of external physical or chemical stimuli as precise delivery agents. In this context, the tumor microenvironment (TME) with slightly acidic pH is used for developing cargo-releasing artificial systems triggered by such conditions. However, there is still a need for fabrication of smart nanomotors that can sense the acidic pH prevalent in the TME rather than using an external fuel source for selective activation and thereafter migrating towards tumors for active drug delivery.

Solvent Effect on Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Chlorophylls a on Chemically Reduced Graphene Oxide.

Solvent plays an important role in the surface interaction of molecules. In this study, we use "chlorophyll a", an archetypical molecule, to investigate its supramolecular self-assembly with chemically reduced graphene oxide in three different types of solvents: polar protic, polar aprotic, and non-polar. It was observed that only a polar protic solvent that can donate protons facilitates the hydrogen bonding between chlorophyll a and chemically reduced graphene oxide nanosheets in a hybrid system.

Enzyme catalysis powered micro/nanomotors for biomedical applications.

With recent developments in the field of autonomous motion for artificial systems, many researchers are focusing on their biomedical application for active and targeted delivery. In this context, enzyme powered motors are at the forefront since they can utilize physiologically relevant fuels as their substrate and carry out catalytic reactions to power motion under in vivo conditions. This review focuses on the design and fabrication of enzyme powered motors together with their propulsion mechanism by using fuels present in biological environments.

Improved Corrosion Resistance of Steel in Ethanol Fuel Blend by Titania Nanoparticles and Leaf Extract.

A porous and low-density protective film on a steel surface in the corrosive environment can undergo deterioration even in the presence of organic inhibitors due to infiltration of aggressive ions into the pinholes and/or pores. This phenomenon is related to the localized corrosion that takes place even in the presence of an optimal concentration of organic corrosion inhibitors in the given medium. To overcome this issue, we have designed an organic protective film on a steel surface with the help of titania nanoparticles (TNPs) combined with an organic corrosion inhibitor derived from leaf extract (APLE), all to be studied in a simulated ethanol fuel blend (SEFB).

Enzyme-Powered Nanomotors with Controlled Size for Biomedical Applications.

Self-propelled motors have been developed with promising potential for medical applications. However, most of them have a size range at the microscale, which limits their further research for experiments. Previously, our group developed nanoscaled motors with a size of around 400 nm with several merits, for example, delivering both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs/proteins, using biocompatible fuels while being able to control their motion, and showing adaptive changes of their speed and navigation to changes in the environment.

A Supramolecular Approach to Nanoscale Motion: Polymersome-Based Self-Propelled Nanomotors.

Autonomous micro- and nanoscale systems have revolutionized the way scientists look into the future, opening up new frontiers to approach and solve problems via a more bioinspired route. However, to achieve systems with higher complexity, superior output control, and multifunctionality, an in-depth study of the different factors that affect micro- and nanomotor behavior is crucial. From a fundamental perspective, the mechanical response of micro- and nanomotors still requires further study in order to have a better understanding of how exactly these systems operate and the different mechanisms of motion that can be combined into one system to achieve an optimal response.

Transforming doxorubicin into a cancer stem cell killer via EpCAM aptamer-mediated delivery.

Chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a major obstacle to the effective treatment of many forms of cancer. To overcome CSC chemo-resistance, we developed a novel system by conjugating a CSC-targeting EpCAM aptamer with doxorubicin (Apt-DOX) to eliminate CSCs. Incubation of Apt-DOX with colorectal cancer cells resulted in high concentration and prolonged retention of DOX in the nuclei.

Graphene-Oxide-Based Enzyme Nanoarchitectonics for Substrate Channeling.

The controlled spatial organization or compartmentalization of multi-enzyme cascade reactions to transfer a substrate from one enzyme to another for substrate channeling on scaffolds has sparked increasing interest in recent years. Here, we use graphene oxides to study the dependence of the activity of cascade reactions in a closely packed, randomly immobilized enzyme system on a 2 D scaffold. We first observe that the hydrophobicity of graphene oxides and various enzyme architectures for co-immobilized systems are important attributes for achieving high product-conversion rates.

Tunnelling current recognition through core-satellite gold nanoparticles for ultrasensitive detection of copper ions.

We report a new method for ultrasensitive detection of Cu(2+), which is based on changes in the tunnelling recognition current across self-assembled core-satellite gold nanoparticles (GNPs) networks functionalised with amino acids (l-cysteine). The addition of copper ions induces the formation of GNP/l-cysteine/Cu(2+)/l-cysteine/GNP molecular junctions and generates a significant decrease in the resistance through the networks. The networks are ultrasensitive to over ten orders range of copper ion concentrations.