Modulating ion migration realizes both enhanced and long-term-stable nanozyme activity for efficient microplastic degradation

Abstract

Degradation of microplastics represents a significant global environmental challenge, necessitating the development of bio-inspired catalysts with superior activity and stability, capable of mimicking natural plastic-degrading enzymes. Although nanozymes possess advantages in low cost, ready availability, and multienzymatic activities, issues of self-consumption often hinder their practical application. Here, motivated by the acceleration of Li+ migration for improving the electrochemical reactivity and cycling stability of lithium iron phosphate (LFP), we engineered LFP by introducing Mn2+ to expand the lattice structure, resulting in Mn-doped LFP (LFMP) that modulates ion migration in nanozymes. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that Mn2+ doping expands the lattice structure of LFP while narrowing its bandgap, thereby significantly enhancing Li+ migration rates. Leveraging this design, LFMP exhibits enhanced peroxidase-like activity (3 times higher than that of LFP) and cycling stability (80% activity retention after 5 cycles versus 45% for LFP), enabling efficient degradation of microplastics made from polyamide 6, high-density polyethylene, and polypropylene. By exemplifying that the degradation efficiency of real-world plastic slices using LFMP nanozymes significantly outperforms traditional methods, we affirm that lattice expansion-driven ion migration may inspire future strategies to circumvent the self-consumption issue while maintaining high catalytic activity in nanozymes.

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Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
10 Jun 2025
Accepted
04 Aug 2025
First published
05 Aug 2025
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2025, Accepted Manuscript

Modulating ion migration realizes both enhanced and long-term-stable nanozyme activity for efficient microplastic degradation

P. Wan, G. Chen, J. Fan, W. Tan, X. Li, L. Chen and K. Li, Chem. Sci., 2025, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D5SC04247J

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