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Vol. 17 (2025)

High Fe-Loading Single-Atom Catalyst Boosts ROS Production by Density Effect for Efficient Antibacterial Therapy

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01522-1
Si Chen
Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, People’s Republic of China
Fang Huang
Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, People’s Republic of China
Lijie Mao
Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, People’s Republic of China
Zhimin Zhang
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, People’s Republic of China
Han Lin
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, People’s Republic of China
Qixin Yan
Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, People’s Republic of China
Xiangyu Lu
Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, People’s Republic of China
Jianlin Shi
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Jianlin Shi

jlshi@mail.sic.ac.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 17 (2025), Article Number: 32

Abstract

The current single-atom catalysts (SACs) for medicine still suffer from the limited active site density. Here, we develop a synthetic method capable of increasing both the metal loading and mass-specific activity of SACs by exchanging zinc with iron. The constructed iron SACs (h3-FNC) with a high metal loading of 6.27 wt% and an optimized adjacent Fe distance of ~ 4 Å exhibit excellent oxidase-like catalytic performance without significant activity decay after being stored for six months and promising antibacterial effects. Attractively, a “density effect” has been found at a high-enough metal doping amount, at which individual active sites become close enough to interact with each other and alter the electronic structure, resulting in significantly boosted intrinsic activity of single-atomic iron sites in h3-FNCs by 2.3 times compared to low- and medium-loading SACs. Consequently, the overall catalytic activity of h3-FNC is highly improved, with mass activity and metal mass-specific activity that are, respectively, 66 and 315 times higher than those of commercial Pt/C. In addition, h3-FNCs demonstrate efficiently enhanced capability in catalyzing oxygen reduction into superoxide anion (O2·−) and glutathione (GSH) depletion. Both in vitro and in vivo assays demonstrate the superior antibacterial efficacy of h3-FNCs in promoting wound healing. This work presents an intriguing activity-enhancement effect in catalysts and exhibits impressive therapeutic efficacy in combating bacterial infections.


Highlights:
1 Fe single-atom catalysts (h3-FNCs) with high loading, high catalytic activity and high stability were synthesized via a method capable of increasing both the metal loading and mass-specific activity by exchanging zinc with iron.
2 The “density effect,” derived from the sufficiently high density of active sites, has been discovered for the first time, leading to a significant alteration in the intrinsic activity of single-atom metal sites.
3 The superior oxidase-like catalytic performance of h3-FNCs ensures highly effective bacterial eradication.

Keywords

Nanocatalytic medicine Single-atom catalysts Reactive oxygen species (ROS) High metal loading Oxidase catalysis
Chen, Si, Fang Huang, Lijie Mao, Zhimin Zhang, Han Lin, Qixin Yan, Xiangyu Lu, and Jianlin Shi. 2024. “High Fe-Loading Single-Atom Catalyst Boosts ROS Production by Density Effect for Efficient Antibacterial Therapy”. Nano-Micro Letters 17 (October):32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01522-1.
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