Design of Nanostructured Peptoid Assemblies as Synthetic Analogues of Natural Carbonic Anhydrases

Abstract

In recent years, the rising carbon dioxide concentration worldwide has become a significant focus of scientific research. Carbon capture represents a feasible solution to the reduction of atmospheric CO2 and carbonic anhydrase functions as a natural carbon dioxide hydrase to hydrate carbon dioxide efficiently. However, carbonic anhydrase (CA) encounters multiple extraction and preservation difficulties and can easily become inactivated. Thus, development of mimics of carbonic anhydrase has become the focus of substantial research activity. Herein, we developed metal-containing nanosheets as mimics of natural carbonic anhydrase through the incorporation of metal-ligand active sites into nanostructured peptoid materials. We further assessed their CA mimic performance under different conditions. Our results show that metal-containing peptoid nanosheet materials are effective as CA mimics, which makes them suitable candidates for bioinspired carbon capture.