Chirality-driven interface engineering of CuO hierarchical architectures for augmented peroxidase-like activity and interfacial antibacterial application.

The engineering of the nanozyme interface is crucial for manipulating their catalytic efficacy, yet achieving this through chirality modulation still remains a significant challenge. In this work, a chirality-driven interface engineering strategy by constructing chiral L/D‑copper oxide hierarchical architectures (L/D-CuO) via a facile one-step wet-chemistry method using enantiomeric cysteine ligands. The resulting hierarchical architectures feature flower-like architectures, and more importantly exhibit intense and chiroptical activity, unambiguously confirming the successful creation of a tailored chiral interface. Steady-state kinetic analyses revealed that the engineered chiral interface significantly augmented the peroxidase-like (POD-like) activity. The L-CuO demonstrated a lower Michaelis-Menten constant (Km = 1.003 mM) and a higher maximal reaction rate (Vm = 0.0252 μM·s-1) compared to achiral CuO (Km = 1.38 mM, Vm = 0.0185 μM·s-1), indicating enhanced substrate affinity and catalytic efficiency at the interface. This augmented interfacial catalysis was effectively translated into potent antibacterial action. The L-CuO achieved a bacterial inhibition rate reaching 90.2% against E. coli and 93.1% against S. aureus, compared with only 59.3% for E. coli and 66.9% for S. aureus antibacterial efficacy for achiral CuO. In practical fruit preservation, the chiral hierarchical architectures effectively functioned as an interfacial antimicrobial coating, significantly preserving fruit quality by inhibiting surface microbial spoilage. This work highlights the profound impact of chirality-driven interface engineering on nanozyme functionality and provides a foundational strategy for designing advanced interfacial catalysts for antibacterial and other biomedical applications.