Highly adhesive and catalytic VOxC nanosheets with strong antibacterial activity

Abstract

Peroxidase-like nanozymes represent fascinating agents that can treat bacterial infections by oxidative attack. Challengingly, many antibacterial nanozymes only perform well at high concentrations because the low affinity to attach on bacterial surface, short lifetime and working distance for hydroxyl radicals largely limit the applications of antibacterial nanozymes. The potential safety/toxicity should be also considered under an exposure of high concentrations of nanomaterials. In this work, we proposed a “Melee attack” strategy to strikingly enhance antibacterial activity by using peroxidase-like VOxC nanosheets (NSs) that prefer to chemically contact bacterial cell surface. The strategy combines the structure properties of VOxC NSs by coordinating with functional groups on bacteria cell wall with high affinity and the superior peroxidase-like activity of VOxC that can generate hydroxyl radicals for bacterial killing. The VOxC NSs are prepared by controlling the auto-oxidation of V2C NSs, possessing multivalent, ultrathin, flexible and entangled texture as well as good hydrophilicity and biocompatibility. VOxC NSs exhibit efficiently antibacterial activity toward E. coli and S. aureus. This study provides a promising strategy by using adhesive nanozymes in close proximity to the surface of targeted bacteria via chemical bonds, which will inspire the design and application of powerful antibacterial nanozymes with high efficiency.