Phosphatase-like Activity of Porous Nanorods of CeO₂ for the Highly Stabilized Dephosphorylation under Interferences

Nanoceria with phosphatase-like behavior shows its great potential for many important biological applications through a catalytic dephosphorylation process. Herein, we synthesize a series of porous nanorods of ceria (PN-CeO₂) with the controllable surface Ce³⁺ fractions modulated by thermal annealing, understanding the correlations between their surface properties and reactivity for the dephosphorylation of p-nitrophenyl phosphate ( p-NPP) and investigating their catalytic performance under various interferences. Our results suggest that PN-CeO₂ with abundant surface defects deliver higher catalytic activity to break down p-NPP. Most importantly, PN-CeO₂ exhibited a better adaptability over a wide pH range and preserved the catalytic activity over a wide temperature range from 20 to 80 °C, if compared with natural enzymes. Moreover, PN-CeO₂ delivered the high catalytic stability against various interference ions. Their great prospects for practical applications were further demonstrated by dephosphorylation of DNA.