Antibacterial Performance of Defect-Enriched PtPdCuFe High-Entropy Alloy Nanozymes
4 affiliations
- 1Macao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (MIMSE), Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China
- 2School of Chinese Materia Medica, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, China
- 3State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management/Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education/Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
- 4School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Anhui University of Science & Technology, Huainan 232001, China
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance limits infected-wound treatment and motivates the search for antibiotic-independent antibacterial materials. Here we report monodisperse PtPdCuFe high-entropy alloy (HEA) nanozymes with multi-enzyme activities, 2.14 ± 0.18 nm in diameter, prepared by oleylamine-assisted pyrolysis. We propose that synergistic metal interactions and abundant defects may endow the nanozymes with pH-gated peroxidase-like (POD-like), catalase-like (CAT-like), and superoxide dismutase-like (SOD-like) activities. At pH 5.5, the nanozymes exert POD-like activity to decompose H2O2 into hydroxyl radicals (•OH), triggering an ROS burst that destroys the bacterial wall, causes intracellular content leakage, and ultimately kills bacteria. At pH 7.4, they exert SOD- and CAT-like activities: ~84% of H2O2 was removed within 25 min and O2 rose to ~50% within 60 s, indicating potential to alleviate wound hypoxia, yet to be validated in future animal experiments. At the lowest effective concentration tested (16 µg·mL−1), bactericidal efficiencies against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were ~56% and ~57%, respectively. At 64 µg·mL−1, killing reached ~90%, with >90% of bacteria showing severe membrane disruption and protein leakage. At this concentration, ~90% of mammalian cells remained viable and the hemolysis rate stayed below 5%.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026antibacterial,
title = {{Antibacterial Performance of Defect-Enriched PtPdCuFe High-Entropy Alloy Nanozymes}},
author = {Jiawei Zhang and Zhiyuan Li and Weng-Chon (Max) Cheong and Awanisa Wubuli and Sitraka Ny Aina Raharivelo and Ziheng Chen},
journal = {Molecules (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/molecules31193506},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13666288},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Antibacterial Performance of Defect-Enriched PtPdCuFe High-Entropy Alloy Nanozymes
AU - Jiawei Zhang
AU - Zhiyuan Li
AU - Weng-Chon (Max) Cheong
AU - Awanisa Wubuli
AU - Sitraka Ny Aina Raharivelo
AU - Ziheng Chen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Molecules (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/molecules31193506
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13666288
AB - Antibiotic resistance limits infected-wound treatment and motivates the search for antibiotic-independent antibacterial materials. Here we report monodisperse PtPdCuFe high-entropy alloy (HEA) nanozymes with multi-enzyme activities, 2.14 ± 0.18 nm in diameter, prepared by oleylamine-assisted pyrolysis. We propose that synergistic metal interactions and abundant defects may endow the nanozymes with pH-gated peroxidase-like (POD-like), catalase-like (CAT-like), and superoxide dismutase-like (SOD-like) activities. At pH 5.5, the nanozymes exert POD-like activity to decompose H2O2 into hydroxyl radicals (•OH), triggering an ROS burst that destroys the bacterial wall, causes intracellular content leakage, and ultimately kills bacteria. At pH 7.4, they exert SOD- and CAT-like activities: ~84% of H2O2 was removed within 25 min and O2 rose to ~50% within 60 s, indicating potential to alleviate wound hypoxia, yet to be validated in future animal experiments. At the lowest effective concentration tested (16 µg·mL−1), bactericidal efficiencies against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were ~56% and ~57%, respectively. At 64 µg·mL−1, killing reached ~90%, with >90% of bacteria showing severe membrane disruption and protein leakage. At this concentration, ~90% of mammalian cells remained viable and the hemolysis rate stayed below 5%.
SN - 1420-3049
ER -