Light-responsive organic artificial enzymes: Material designs and bio-applications

As significant biocatalysts, natural enzymes have exhibited a vast range of applications in biocatalytic reactions. However, the “always-on” natural enzyme activity is not beneficial for the regulation of catalytic processes, which limits their bio-applications. Recently, it has been extensively reported that various organic artificial enzymes exhibit prominent absorption and controlled activity under illumination, which not only creates a series of light-responsive catalytic platforms but also plays a key role in biosensing and biomedical research. To provide novel ideas for the design of artificial enzymes, we conduct this review to highlight the recent progress of light-responsive organic artificial enzymes (LOA-Enz). The specific photoresponse mechanism and various bio-applications of LOA-Enz are also presented in detail. Furthermore, the remaining challenges and future perspectives in this field are discussed.