An All‐Organic Semiconductor C₃N₄/PDINH Heterostructure with Advanced Antibacterial Photocatalytic Therapy Activity

Abstract

Antibacterial photocatalytic therapy has been reported as a promising alternative water disinfection technology for combating antibiotic‐resistant bacteria. Numerous inorganic nanosystems have been developed as antibiotic replacements for bacterial infection treatment, but these are limited due to the toxicity risk of heavy metal species. Organic semiconductor photocatalytic materials have attracted great attention due to their good biocompatibility, chemically tunable electronic structure, diverse structural flexibility, suitable band gap, low cost, and the abundance of the resources they require. An all‐organic composite photocatalytic nanomaterial C3N4/perylene‐3,4,9,10‐tetracarboxylic diimide (PDINH) heterostructure is created through recrystallization of PDINH on the surface of C3N4 in situ, resulting in enhanced photocatalytic efficiency due to the formation of a basal heterostructure. The absorption spectrum of this composite structure can be extended from ultraviolet to near‐infrared light (750 nm), enhancing the photocatalytic effect to produce more reactive oxygen species, which have an excellent inactivation effect on both Gram‐negative and positive bacteria, while demonstrating negligible toxicity to normal tissue cells. An efficient promotion of infectious wound regeneration in mice with Staphylococcus aureus infected dermal wounds is demonstrated. This all‐organic heterostructure shows great promise for use in wound disinfection.

CuS nanoparticles anchored to g-C3N4 nanosheets for photothermal ablation of bacteria

“…[6][7][8][9] In fact, numerous kinds of antibacterial materials and strategies have been developed in the past decades. For example, chemotherapies using antibacterial polypeptides, 10 noble metal nanoparticles (NPs), 11,12 semiconductor NPs 13,14 and carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) 15,16 were all proved to exhibit antimicrobial activities. More recently, photothermal or photodynamic sterilization techniques were extensively investigated in the eradication of bacteria via production of massive heating or the generation of reactive oxygen species.…”

Two-dimensional nanomaterials beyond graphene for antibacterial applications: current progress and future perspectives

“…Furthermore, Wang et al reported that vanadate quantum dots-inset g-C 3 N 4 (vanadate QDs/g-C 3 N 4 ) nanosheets showed faster photocatalytic disinfection with abundant ROS compared to bare g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets 171. Moreover, to reduce the toxicity risk of heavy metal species, Chen's groups created a novel all-organic self-assembled semiconductor photocatalytic nanomaterial C 3 N 4 /PDINH heterostructure for photocatalytic antibacterial by recrystallization of PDINH (perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide) on the surface of C 3 N 4 nanosheets in situ 201. Intriguingly, they found that the absorption spectrum of heterostructure were greatly extended from UV to NIR, enhancing the photocatalytic effect to generate more ROS for better bactericidal, while revealing low-toxicity to healthy tissue cells.…”

Solar‐Inspired Water Purification Based on Emerging 2D Materials: Status and Challenges

“…2D metal‐free materials had been reported for photoinduced antibacterial behavior, but the photoinduced antibacterial efficiency is still far from practical applications. Recently, 2D organic semiconductor photoinduced antibacterial materials have attracted extensive attention due to their advantages such as good stability, low cost, chemically adjustable electrons, good biocompatibility, high carrier mobility, suitable bandgap, abundant element resources, and high electron affinity . This provides a new idea for the application of organic photoinduced antibacterial semiconductor in water sterilization.…”