The highly reactive nature of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the basis for widespread use in environmental and health-related fields. Conventionally, there are only two kinds of catalysts used for ROS generation: photocatalysts and piezocatalysts. However, their usage has been limited due to various environmental and physical factors. To address this problem, herein, we report thermoelectric materials, such as Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, and PbTe, as thermocatalysts which can produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under a small surrounding temperature difference. Being the most prevalent environmental factors in daily life, temperature and related thermal effects have tremendous potential for practical applications. To increase the practicality in everyday life, bismuth telluride nanoplates (Bi2Te3 NPs), serving as an efficient thermocatalyst, are coated on a carbon fiber fabric (Bi2Te3@CFF) to develop a thermocatalytic filter with antibacterial function. Temperature difference induced H2O2 generation by thermocatalysts results in the oxidative damage of bacteria, which makes thermocatalysts highly promising for disinfection applications. Antibacterial activity as high as 95% is achieved only by the treatment of low-temperature difference cycles. The current work highlights the horizon-shifting impacts of thermoelectric materials for real-time purification and antibacterial applications.

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Water disinfection is an important issue in the world. Nearly one billion of people are sick or dead on account of the water which full of bacteria. To solve this problem, scientists have used semiconductor nanomaterials as photocatalysts to replace the traditional sewage treatments which are high cost and toxic. Under light irradiation, those nanomaterials will generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) with water and oxygen. However, in most cases they are inefficient because traditional photocatalysts can only absorb ultraviolet light (only accounts for 10% in solar energy). Therefore, we developed MoS2 catalysts, which can generate ROS under visible light (50% in solar energy) in this paper. Furthermore, by growing Au nanoparticles on the surface of MoS2 (Au-MoS2), its disinfection efficiency can be better than commercial TiO2. We believe the as-developed Au-MoS2 has great potential for water disinfection application in the near future.