Copper single-atom nanozyme with intelligent capture and photo-enhanced activity for controlling plant bacterial diseases

Nanozymes hold promise for controlling plant bacterial diseases, but conventional ones suffer from low bacterial affinity, inefficient enzyme-like activity, and thus poor antibacterial efficacy. Here, we report a photo-enhanced copper single-atom (CuSA)-loaded ZnS@MoS2 nanozyme with high affinity and efficient peroxidase (POD)-like activity. CuSA-loaded ZnS@MoS2 exhibits higher efficacies against bacterial speck and bacterial wilt diseases in tomatoes, surpassing the commercial thiodiazole copper by 13.33% and 52.77%, respectively. Mechanistically, it catalyzes H2O2 to generate toxic hydroxyl radicals (·OH) via POD-like activity; near-infrared irradiation boosts this activity by lowering activation energy and accelerating mass transfer. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that CuSA-loaded ZnS@MoS2 captures bacteria via Metal-O-P bonds on cell surfaces, reducing ·OH short-range quenching to enhance efficacy. This SA nanozyme design, integrating intelligent capture and photo-enhanced activity, offers an insight for plant bacterial disease control. Nanozymes are promising for controlling plant bacterial diseases, but conventional nanozymes suffer from low bacterial affinity, inefficient enzyme-like activity, and thus poor antibacterial efficacy. Here, the authors report a copper single-atom nanozyme that outperforms commercial thiodiazole copper in controlling plant bacterial diseases via intelligent capture and photo-enhanced activity.