The enhanced photocatalytic sterilization of MOF-Based nanohybrid for rapid and portable therapy of bacteria-infected open wounds

Open wounds are prone to infection and difficult to heal, which even threatens the life of patients because bacterial infections can induce other lethal complications without prompt treatment. The commonly used antibiotics treatment for bacterial infections has been reported to cause globally bacterial resistance and even the occurrence of superbacteria. The highly effective and antibiotic-independent therapeutic strategies are urgently needed for treating various kinds of bacteria-infected diseases. In this work, we synthesized an eco-friendly nanohybrid material (ZnDMZ) consisting of a kind of biodegradable metal organic framework (MOF, ZIF-8) combined with Zn-doped MoS(2) (Zn–MoS(2)) nanosheets, which exhibited great ability to kill bacteria and promote the healing of bacteria-infected wounds under 660 nm light irradiation. The underlying mechanism is that besides the local hyperthermia, the nanohybrid material exhibits enhanced photocatalytic performance than single component in it, i.e., it can also be excited by 660 nm light to produce more oxygen radical species (ROS) due to the following factors. On one hand, the Zn doping can reduce the work function and the band gap of MoS(2), which promotes the movement of photoexcited electrons to the surface of the material. On the other hand, the combination between Zn–MoS(2) and MOF induces the formation of a built-in electric field due to their work function difference, thus accelerating the separation of photoexcited electron-hole pairs. Because of the synergy of photocatalytic effect, photothermal effect and the released Zn ions, the synthesized ZnDMZ possessed a highly effective antibacterial efficacy of 99.9% against Staphylococcus aureus under 660 nm light irradiation for 20 min without cytotoxicity. In vivo tests showed that this nanohybrid material promoted the wound healing due to the released Zn ions. This nanohybrid will be promising for rapid and portable treatment of bacteria-infected open wounds in pathogenic bacteria contaminated environments.