Preparation and characterization of N-halamine-modified CuS for antibacterial applications

N-halamine compounds are well known for their durable antibacterial activity, while copper sulfide (CuS) nanoparticles possess excellent photothermal conversion capability. In this study, an amino-functional polymeric N-halamine precursor (PTMPS) was synthesized and covalently grafted onto spherical CuS particles, thereby integrating chemical oxidative and photothermal antibacterial mechanisms within a single hybrid system. After chlorination, CuS-PTMPS-Cl exhibited a high active chlorine content (2.03%), while maintaining almost unchanged morphology and crystallinity following surface modification. Although the N-halamine coating slightly reduced the photothermal conversion efficiency, CuS-PTMPS-Cl still reached 47.27[Formula: see text]C under 808 nm NIR irradiation (2 W cm[Formula: see text]) within 10 min, confirming its strong photothermal responsiveness. Antibacterial tests showed that CuS-PTMPS-Cl inactivated over 95% of E. coli and S. aureus within 30 min in the dark, and eliminated more than 95% of bacteria within 10 min under NIR irradiation, confirming a synergistic antibacterial effect of chemical oxidation and photothermal heating. This study proposes a feasible strategy for designing multifunctional antibacterial materials by integrating N-halamine chemistry with photothermal nanomaterials, offering promising applications in biomedical disinfection and surface sterilization.