Construction of sandwich-structured V2CTx@PDA@Ag nanosheet composite for enhanced near-infrared photothermocatalytic sterilization performance

The long-term use of antibiotics leads to drug resistance, it is insufficient to combat stubborn pathogens. Therefore, it urgently needs a material that can quickly and effectively eradicate bacteria, especially for resistant bacteria and their biofilm structures that are difficult to eliminate with conventional antibiotics. This article adopts a new 2D layered V2CTx MXene material, which utilizes in-situ coating method to stimulate dopamine self polymerization and fix nano silver onto V2CTx nanosheets. V2CTx@PDA@Ag showed very significant antibacterial effect under 808 nm laser illumination for 30 min. After analyzing the sterilization mechanism, the photothermal synergistic sterilization of composite mainly relies on physical contact, the generation of reactive oxygen species, and the photothermal synergistic effect. It is worth mentioning that after V2CTx is coated with PDA, the photothermal efficiency is improved, V2CTx and nano silver are also effectively connected. It proved that the composite has stable and efficient antibacterial properties.