Nanoclay Mediated Self‐Promoted Reactive Oxygen Species Releasing Enables Efficient Antimicrobial

Abstract Reactive oxygen species (ROS) releasing materials are increasingly used in nanomedicines due to their effectiveness against a broad spectrum of microbes. However, most ROS‐releasing materials rely on external stimuli such as photoirradiation, either through photodynamic or photocatalytic processes, which limits their practical applications. Herein, this work presents a novel nanoclay mediated self‐promoted ROS releasing material called oxygen vacancies‐rich ZnO/kaolinite (O v ‐rich ZnO/Kaol). Both experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the introduction of kaolinite increases the content of O v in ZnO, and the change in the electronic structure promotes the process of oxygen adsorption and activation, resulting in the generation of · O 2 − through oxygen reduction without photoirradiation. Molecular dynamics simulations confirm that O v enhances the interaction between the material and bacterial membrane, promoting the bacterial‐killing effect of · O 2 − . More importantly, O v ‐rich ZnO/Kaol is successfully prepared on a pilot scale and used to manufacture antibacterial gauze, which showed at least 99% antibacterial activity against both Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) in the absence of light. The as‐prepared material also exhibited satisfactory biocompatibility and biosafety. This method can offer a more benign approach to address the limitations of traditional photoirradiation‐dependent photosensitizers for antimicrobial gauze.