YU Xin1 ，DING Longhua1 ，XU Huiyan2
1. Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research， University of Jinan， Jinan 250022， China；2. Institute for Smart Materials & Engineering， University of Jinan， Jinan 250022， China
Significance Nanozymes, nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-like activities, have emerged as promising alternatives to natural enzymes due to their superior stability, tunable activity, and cost-effective synthesis. Their multifunctional nature makes them attractive for diverse applications, including biomedicine, biosensing, and environmental remediation. Among the strategies developed to enhance nanozyme performance, nitrogen regulation has shown remarkable potential. The incorporation of nitrogen in the form of vacancies, dopants, coordination structures, or nitride compounds significantly modulates the catalytic microenvironment and active sites of nanozymes, thereby improving catalytic efficiency, selectivity, and stability.
Progress Recent studies have revealed that nitrogen incorporation can precisely tailor the electronic structure and surface properties of nanozymes, leading to enhanced activity and substrate specificity. Nitrogen vacancies introduce defect sites that can serve as catalytic centers, while nitrogen doping alters the electron density around metal or non-metal atoms, optimizing redox potential. Nitrogen coordination with metal centers offers a stable and tunable coordination environment, and metal nitrides have shown exceptional peroxidase-and oxidase-like activities due to their high conductivity and chemical stability. Moreover, the advent of single-atom nanozymes has further advanced nanozyme design, enabling atomic-level precision in active site engineering. Computational tools, including density functional theory (DFT) and machine learning algorithms, are increasingly being employed to predict optimal nitrogen configurations and guide experimental efforts. These advances have driven notable applications in tumor therapy, antibacterial treatment, pollutant degradation, and ultrasensitive biomolecule detection.
Conclusions and Prospects Nitrogen regulation offers a versatile and powerful approach for engineering high-performance nanozymes. By precisely tuning the chemical environment and active-site architecture, nitrogen-regulated nanozymes exhibit enhanced catalytic behaviors that often surpass those of natural enzymes. For further advancement, several key directions warrant further exploration. First, the fundamental mechanisms of nitrogen regulation should be elucidated through advanced in situ characterization and theoretical modeling. Second, synergistic systems that combine nitrogen regulation with other strategies，such as defect engineering and hybridization, should be designed. Third, comprehensive evaluations of biosafety and long-term stability in biological and environmental systems are essential. Fourth, novel applications in immunotherapy, smart diagnostics，and sustainable catalysis should be explored. Integrating interdisciplinary approaches, particularly machine learning-guided synthesis and high-throughput screening, will be essential for accelerating the rational design of next-generation nanozymes. Continued advancements in nitrogen-regulated nanozymes are expected to drive the development of intelligent catalytic systems and expand their impact across various scientific and technological domains.
Keywords：nitrogen doping; nitrogen coordination; nitrogen vacancy; nitride; nanozyme
Get Citation: YU Xin， DING Longhua， XU Huiyan. Nanozymes regulated by nitrogen［J］. China Powder Science and Technology，2026，32（1）：1−10.
Received: 2024-12-26 .Revised: 2025-10-30,Online: 2025-11-21.
Funding:The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52422213) and the
Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (Grant No. ZR2022JQ20).
DOI：10.13732/j.issn.1008-5548.2026.01.009
CLC No:TB4； O613.61 Type Code: A
Serial No:1008-5548（2026）01-0001-10
