There has been great interest in the development of artificial inorganic nanomaterials that mimic natural peroxidases. Unfortunately, these nanomaterials usually possess relatively low catalytic activity and are generally considered to work effectively only within a narrow temperature range (for example, they are inactive at high temperatures). Intriguingly, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is not only the ubiquitous energy currency of life, it is also known to form charge transfer complexes with aromatic molecules and to participate in free radical redox chemistry. Inspired by its unique properties, for the first time, we reveal a novel catalytic role for ATP and show that ATP is an ideal boosting agent for markedly improving the catalytic activity of a peroxidase mimic over a broad temperature range and, more significantly, making it possible to achieve exceptionally efficient high-temperature catalytic reactions. These observations pave the way for identifying highly effective modulators that promote the overall performance of artificial enzymes. NPG Asia Materials (2014) 6, e114; doi:10.1038/am.2014.42; published online 18 July 2014 INTRODUCTION Natural enzymes, which are biological molecules of immense catalytic force and high substrate specificity, have attracted considerable attention for use in pharmaceutical processes, agrochemical production, biosensing and food industry applications. 1-3 However, their applications are largely limited by their intrinsic properties, such as the sensitivity of catalytic activity to environmental conditions and low operational stability (owing to denaturation and digestion), as well as by the high costs of preparation and purification. 4,5 To circumvent the aforementioned limitations, tremendous efforts have been made to develop biomimetic catalysts. Among the countless examples of artificial enzymes, the emergence of and recent advances in nanotechnology and biology provide new opportunities for designing functional nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics. 4,[6][7][8] These materials might serve as novel and promising artificial enzymes with the advantages of facile preparation, tunability of catalytic activity and high stability under stringent conditions. Owing to the excellent catalytic properties of these nanomaterials, Scrimin and co-workers 7 called them 'nanozymes' in analogy to the nomenclature of catalytically active polymers (synzymes). Magnetic nanoparticles, 4,9 CeO 2 , 6,10-12 V 2 O 5 , 13,14 gold nanoparticles, 7,8,[15][16][17][18] PtPd ÀFe 3 O 4 , 19,20 carbon nanotubes, 21,22 graphene oxide and graphene nanocomposites 23,24 and other types of nanoparticle have been found to exhibit unique enzyme-like catalytic activities and have