Nanozymes: Supramolecular perspective

As alternatives to natural enzymes, nanostructured materials with enzyme catalytic properties named "nanozymes" have attracted a great deal of attention with widespread usage in industrial, medical, and biological fields. Focusing on the design of enzyme models based on supramolecular scaffolds provides new perspectives towards artificial enzyme research. Supramolecular chemistry is defined as the ability of molecules to self-organize into a highly complex chemical system based on noncovalent interactions. A thorough understanding of the catalytic mechanism will contribute to the rational design of highly efficient nanozymes. Since the biocatalytic functions of natural enzymes usually accompanied by a variety of structural complexities and limitations, supramolecular viewpoint provides an alternative strategies to unravel the mystery of enzyme mechanisms. In the current review, we introduce the classification of supramolecular scaffolds, discuss about artificial nanozymes from supramolecular point of view and cover recent research development of nanozymes in the field of medical diagnosis and treatment, biosensing, imaging, environmental protection and etc. We hope this review provides insights to researchers who study the field and contributes to the development of enzyme mimic research.