Mxene-Based Supramolecular Composite Hydrogels for Antioxidant and Photothermal Antibacterial Activities.

Abstract

Bacterial infections and oxidative damage caused by various reactive oxygen species (ROS) pose a significant threat to human health. It is highly desirable to find an ideal biomaterial system with broad spectrum antibacterial and antioxidant capabilities. We present a new supramolecular antibacterial and antioxidant composite hydrogel made of chiral L-phenylalanine-derivative (LPFEG) as matrix and Mxene (Ti3 C2 Tx ) as filler material. The non-covalent interactions (H-bonding and π-π interactions) in between LPFEG and Mxene and the inversion of LPFEG chirality were verified by FTIR and CD spectroscopy. The composite hydrogels have shown improved mechanical properties revealed by rheological analysis. The composite hydrogel system exhibited photothermal conversion efficiency (40.79%), which enabled effective photothermal broad-spectrum antibacterial activities against both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. Furthermore, the Mxene also enable the composite hydrogel to exhibit excellent antioxidant activity by efficiently scavenging free radicals like DPPH·, ABTS·+, and ·OH. These results indicate that the Mxene-based chiral supramolecular composite hydrogel, with improved rheological, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties has a great potential for biomedical applications. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.