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 (Ov‐rich ZnO/Kaol). Both experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the introduction of kaolinite increases the content of Ov in ZnO, and the change in the electronic structure promotes the process of oxygen adsorption and activation, resulting in the generation of ·O2−through oxygen reduction without photoirradiation. Molecular dynamics simulations confirm that Ov enhances the interaction between the material and bacterial membrane, promoting the bacterial‐killing effect of ·O2−. More importantly, Ov‐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.