A magnetic biomimetic nanocatalyst for cleaving phosphoester and carboxylic ester bonds under mild conditions.

[Structure: see text] As a result of the unique surface structure of nanospheres, Asp and His residues supported on a 12 nm maghemite nanoparticle worked collaboratively as a biomimetic nanocatalyst for hydrolyzing paraoxon (phosphoester) and 4-nitrophenyl acetate (carboxylic ester) in Milli-Q water (pH 7.0) at 37 degrees C, without employing extremes of pH or heavy metals. Our nanocatalyst could be facilely recovered via magnetic concentration. The isolated catalyst exhibited long-term stability, showing no significant loss of its catalytic activity for repeated uses after 3 months.