Recent Advances in Common Transition Metal-Based Single-Atom Nanozymes and Their Applications in Pollutant Detection and Degradation

Nanozymes can be used as favorable substitutes for natural enzymes because of their strong catalytic activity and good stability. At the same time, research on single-atom catalysts (SACs) with isolated metal atoms as active centers is also in full swing, showing excellent performance in a variety of catalytic reactions. With the in-depth study of SACs, people have a comprehensive understanding of them and put forward the concept of single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes) by combining nanozymes with SACs. As a new type of nanomaterial, SAzymes have attracted great interest due to their remarkable catalytic activity and rapid energy conversion. However, most applications of SAzymes are mainly in the fields of biomedicine and biosensing, and less research has been done in the field of the environment. Based on the amazing ability of nanozymes to detect and degrade pollutants, SAzymes are also used in the environmental field, and even they will show better capabilities. This review mainly analyses common transition metal-based SAzymes and describes their applications in the field of environmental pollutants.