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Abstract
Urea pollution is a growing environmental concern, and its removal via catalytic hydrolysis is challenging due to the resonance-stabilized amide bonds. In nature, this reaction is catalyzed by ureases in many soil bacteria. However, the remedy of this problem with natural enzymes is not feasible as they are easily denatured and require high costs for both preparation and storage. Given this, the development of nanomaterials bearing enzyme-like activity (nanozymes) with advantages such as low production cost, simple storage, and pH/thermal stability has attracted much attention over the past decade. As inspired by the mechanism of urease-catalyzed urea hydrolysis, the co-presence of Lewis acid (LA) and Brønsted acid (BA) sites is imperative to proceed with this reaction. Herein, layered HNb3O8 samples with intrinsic BA sites were adopted for investigation. The layer reduction of this material to few-/single layers can expose Nb sites with various LA strengths depending on the degree of NbO6 distortion. Among the catalysts examined, single-layer HNb3O8 bearing strong LA and BA sites displays the best hydrolytic activity towards acetamide and urea. This sample with high thermal stability was found to outperform urease at temperatures higher than 50 °C. The acidity-activity correlation established in this study is believed to guide the future design of industrial catalysts to remediate urea pollution. © 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 9752-9758 |
Journal | Nanoscale |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 22 |
Online published | 8 May 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Jun 2023 |
Funding
The authors are thankful for the financial support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (CityU 11305721), the Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Grant of City University of Hong Kong (Project No. 7020053), and the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2023NSFSC1072). This work was also supported by the Soonchunhyang University Research Fund.
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Dive into the research topics of 'Single-layer HNb3O8 with strong and nearby Lewis and Brønsted acid sites boosts amide bond hydrolysis for urease mimicking'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
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GRF: The Rational Design of Artificial Nanozymes for Urease Mimicking: the Stoichiometric Release of NH3 from Urea Hydrolysis at Ambient and Elevated Temperature
PENG, Y.-K. (Principal Investigator / Project Coordinator)
1/01/22 → …
Project: Research