Catalysis in Stimuli-Responsive Nanoreactors: Towards Colloidal Enzymes and Feedback Control

Responsive nanoreactors are composed of catalytically active nanoparticles coated by a stimuli-responsive polymer shell, whose permeability controls the activity of the process. The shell permeability, and with that the catalytic reaction, can adjust with the properties of the environment and thus can be flexibly tuned and switched, e.g., by the temperature [1], salt concentration, or solvent composition. We provide a general theory for diffusion-influenced reactions for a wide class of emerging nanoreactors, explicitly including shell permeability effects [2,3,4]. Our theory enables to rationally design nanoreactor activity and selectivity. Furthermore, the chemo-mechanical coupling in these nanoreactors is highly nonlinear and can lead to fascinating feedback-controlled phenomena like self-regulatory or oscillating catalysis, serving as a starting point for adaptive and programmable nanocatalysis and the development of colloidal-scale enzymes.

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[4] Kanduč et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 19, 5906 (2017).