Substrateagnostic

Substrate-agnostic (also written substrateagnostic) is an adjective describing a system, material, or method that functions across a range of substrate types without requiring substrate-specific adjustments. The term is used in fields such as biochemistry, materials science, and engineering to indicate broad compatibility with the surface or substrate it interacts with.

In biochemistry, substrate-agnostic catalysis refers to enzymes or catalysts that accept a variety of substrates rather than a single molecule, enabling flexible synthetic routes or toolkit design. In materials science, substrate-agnostic adhesives, coatings, or sensors operate on diverse substrates—metals, polymers, glass, ceramics—often with minimal surface preparation.

Design approaches aim to maximize cross-substrate compatibility. This can involve using versatile interaction methods (e.g., non-specific adsorption, broad-spectrum linker chemistries), flexible or modular architectures, and tolerance to substrate variability such as surface chemistry, roughness, or contamination. Testing typically involves benchmarking performance across representative substrates to verify true substrate-agnostic behavior.

Limitations may include a trade-off between universal compatibility and optimal performance on any one substrate, as well as increased development complexity or cost.

See also: substrate specificity, substrate promiscuity, universal adhesion, cross-substrate compatibility.