Synergism of 2D/1D MXene/cobalt nanowire heterojunctions for boosted photo-activated antibacterial application

Because of the explosive generation of drug-fast bacteria, antibiotics-free strategy is much-needed for elimination of bacterial-associated contagion. Herein, we develop a near-infrared (NIR) activated heterostructure catalyst (MXene/CoNWs) consisted of two-dimensional (2D) MXene and one-dimensional (1D) cobalt nanowires (CoNWs) in acting against bacteria for drug-free therapy. The intercalated CoNWs can rapidly trap the photogenerated electrons from Ti3C2 MXene nanosheets, thus restrains the recombination of hot electron-hole and facilitates transfer of carriers upon 808 nm NIR illumination, thereby increasing the yields of germicidal reactive oxygen species (ROS). Additionally, the photothermal effect of the 2D/1D heterostructure is significantly strengthened due to the synergy of plasmonic CoNWs and MXene semiconductor. The heterostructure coatings on an orthopedic implant can achieve a high antibacterial efficacy of over 90% against Gram-positive/Gram-negative bacteria within 20 min, resulting from the synergistic actions of NIR-triggered ROS and hyperthermia. Besides, in vitro findings indicate that MXene/CoNWs heterojunctions show acceptable cytocompatibility. Accordingly, the two merits make the novel MXene/CoNWs heterojunctions become a promising drug-free antibacterial therapy for cleaning the pathogenic infection and avoiding antibiotic resistance in practice.