In view of increasing drug resistance, ecofriendly photoelectrical materials are promising alternatives to antibiotics. Here we design an interfacial Schottky junction of Bi2S3/Ti3C2Tx resulting from the contact potential difference between Ti3C2Tx and Bi2S3. The different work functions induce the formation of a local electrophilic/nucleophilic region. The self-driven charge transfer across the interface increases the local electron density on Ti3C2Tx. The formed Schottky barrier inhibits the backflow of electrons and boosts the charge transfer and separation. The photocatalytic activity of Bi2S3/Ti3C2Tx intensively improved the amount of reactive oxygen species under 808 nm near-infrared radiation. They kill 99.86% of Staphylococcus aureus and 99.92% of Escherichia coli with the assistance of hyperthermia within 10 min. We propose the theory of interfacial engineering based on work function and accordingly design the ecofriendly photoresponsive Schottky junction using two kinds of components with different work functions to effectively eradicate bacterial infection.

Biofilms have been related to the persistence of infections on medical implants, and these cannot be eradicated because of the resistance of biofilm structures. Therefore, a biocompatible phototherapeutic system is developed composed of MoS 2 , IR780 photosensitizer, and arginine–glycine–aspartic acid–cysteine (RGDC) to safely eradicate biofilms on titanium implants within 20 min. The magnetron‐sputtered MoS 2 film possesses excellent photothermal properties, and IR780 can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) with the irradiation of near‐infrared (NIR, λ = 700–1100 nm) light. Consequently, the combination of photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), assisted by glutathione oxidation accelerated by NIR light, can provide synergistic and rapid killing of bacteria, i.e., 98.99 ± 0.42% eradication ratio against a Staphylococcus aureus biofilm in vivo within 20 min, which is much greater than that of PTT or PDT alone. With the assistance of ROS, the permeability of damaged bacterial membranes increases, and the damaged bacterial membranes become more sensitive to heat, thus accelerating the leakage of proteins from the bacteria. In addition, RGDC can provide excellent biosafety and osteoconductivity, which is confirmed by in vivo animal experiments.

Because of the excellent mechanical properties and good biocompatibility, titanium-based metals are widely used in hard tissue repair, especially load-bearing orthopedic applications. However, bacterial infection and complication during and after surgery often causes failure of the metallic implants. To endow titanium-based implants with antibacterial properties, surface modification is one of the effective strategies. Possessing the unique organic structure composed of molecular and functional groups resembling those of natural organisms, functionalized polymeric nanoarchitectures enhance not only the antibacterial performance but also other biological functions that are difficult to accomplish on many conventional bioinert metallic implants. In this review, recent advance in functionalized polymeric nanoarchitectures and the associated antimicrobial mechanisms are reviewed.

CsPbBr3/Cs4PbBr6 nanocomposites recently were found to yield efficient luminescence. However, the formation mechanism of the nanocomposites is unclear, and large-scale and green synthesis is still challenging. Here, we develop a self-assembly reaction to fabricate CsPbBr3/Cs4PbBr6 nanocomposites efficiently and environmentally friendly. The transmission electron microscopy clearly shows CsPbBr3 nanocrystal is embedded in Cs4PbBr6 matrix, forming a CsPbBr3/Cs4PbBr6 composite structure. In situ characterization reveals that the CsPbBr3/Cs4PbBr6 nanocomposites are formed by a two-step reaction, driven by ion concentration difference. The self-encapsulation and separation of the CsPbBr3 NCs by the host Cs4PbBr6 result in the material exhibiting a high PLQY of 83% and narrow-band emission at 517 nm with a full width at half-maximum of only 21 nm. Further, we fabricate an on-chip white light-emitting diode (LED) using the as-synthesized CsPbBr3/Cs4PbBr6 nanocomposites as a green emitter and red K2SiF6:Mn4+ phosphor on the surface of a blue LED chip. The resulting white LED exhibits a high luminous efficiency of up to 88 lm W–1 at 20 mA with an NTSC value of 131% and Rec. 2020 of 98%.

In this work, we present the results obtained in fabrication and characterization of single-crystalline lead titanate nanowires synthesized by surfactant-free hydrothermal method at 200°C. The as-prepared samples were characterized by means of x-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM, selected-area electron diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis, Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The results show that the products have a tetragonal perovskite structure without any other impurity phase, which are made up of a large quantity of nanowires with uniform diameters of about 12nm and lengths reaching up to 5μm, and the growth of nanowires is generally along the [001] direction. XPS result shows that the binding energy of Ti2p(3∕2) core level peak for PbTiO3 nanowires is larger than that of the corresponding ceramics and leads to the larger spin-orbit splitting (Δ[2p(3∕2)−2p(1∕2)]) for Ti2p. Raman studies show that the vibration modes of nanowires redshifted and broadened, which have shorter phonon lifetime compared to that of bulk materials. A blue light emission peaking at about 471nm (2.63eV) is observed at room temperature, oxygen vacancies are responsible for the luminescence in PbTiO3 nanowires. The band gap energy for PbTiO3 nanowires was about 4.15eV.