ZIF‐67‐Derived Antivirus Cobalt Hydroxide LDH Nanosheets Produced through High‐Concentration Cobalt Ion‐Assisted Hydration

Abstract In this study, a novel strategy is developed for the first time, referred to as high‐concentration cobalt ion‐assisted hydration (HCCAH) utilizing zeolitic imidazolate framework‐67 (ZIF‐67) as a precursor, to produce independent and flat α‐cobalt hydroxide nanosheets (CHN). These nanosheets offer abundant contact sites for binding with virus surface proteins. The formation of CHN involves the in situ transformation from ZIF‐67, due to the matching of the hydrolysis rate of ZIF‐67 and in situ growth rate of cobalt hydroxide orchestrated by high concentration of cobalt ions. Notably, the CHN contains a higher proportion of trivalent cobalt, which is shown to enhance the binding with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) Spike protein and induce protein structural denaturation, as demonstrated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Antiviral experiments using pseudovirus and authentic viruses have confirmed the promising antiviral performance of CHN. Furthermore, both in vitro and in vivo experiments have demonstrated the excellent biocompatibility of CHN. This research opens up new possibilities for the application of cobalt hydroxide nanosheets and serves as a valuable reference for the design of antiviral nanomaterials.