Interfacial engineering of Ni-phytate and Ti3C2Tx MXene-sensitized TiO2 toward enhanced sterilization efficacy under 808 nm NIR light irradiation

Constructing a near-infrared (NIR) light-responsive antibacterial material keeps a preferential goal yet a huge challenge. Herein, we controllably manufactured a sandwich architecture comprised of plasmon (Ti3C2Tx MXene) and photosensitizer (PANi (Ni-phytate)) locating on wide-bandgap semiconductor (TiO2), named as PANi/TiO2/Ti3C2Tx (PTM), which can achieve bidirectional transfer of hot-electrons under 808 nm NIR light irradiation, significantly augmenting the carrier concentration of TiO2 surface. The increase of hot-electron concentration not only strengthens the chemical activity through the O2 uptake simulations by the theoretical investigations, but also elevates the photothermal conversion efficiency up to 43.3 %, which is far superior to other reported photocatalytic-photothermal system. The 808 nm NIR-activated germicide can realize 99.9 % sterilization efficacy against the Escherichia coli (E. coli) with the collaboration of photocatalytic and photothermal treatment. This work offered a brand-new idea to construct a NIR-driven antimicrobial material achieving the synergistic interaction of photocatalytic therapy and photothermal therapy.