Silver-Laden Black Phosphorus Nanosheets for an Efficient In Vivo Antimicrobial Application.

Nanobactericides represent one of the most efficient and promising strategies for eliminating bacterial infection considering the increasing resistance threats of conventional antibiotics. Black phosphorus (BP) is the most exciting postgraphene layered 2D nanomaterial with convincing physiochemical properties, yet the study of BP-based antibiotics is still in its infancy. Here, a compact silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-doped black phosphorus nanosheet (BPN) is constructed to synergistically enhance solar disinfection through the promoted reactive oxygen species (ROS) photogeneration, which is attributed to the improved electron-hole separation and recombination of BPNs as revealed from the systematic experimental studies. An in-depth density functional theory (DFT) calculation confirms that the integrated AgNPs provide a preferred site for facilitating the adsorption and activation of O2 , thus promoting the more efficient and robust ROS generation on BPN-AgNP nanohybrids. Besides the enhanced photoinduced ROS, the anchored AgNPs simultaneously lead to a dramatically increased affinity toward bacteria, which facilitates a synergetic pathogen inactivation. Significantly, the convincing antimicrobial BPN-AgNP contributes to the prominent wound healing and antimicrobial ability in vivo with minimized biological burden. This sophisticated design of new 2D nanohybrids opens a new avenue for further exploiting BP-based nanohybrids in portable bandage and broad-spectrum disinfection applications.

Development of functional black phosphorus nanosheets with remarkable catalytic and antibacterial performance.

Highly dispersed 2D-nanostructured ultrathin black phosphorus nanosheets (BPNs)-integrated Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) hybrids were constructed in situ through a facile and environmentally friendly strategy. No additional reductants, surfactants, or polymer templates were introduced during this green and convenient synthesis process. The resulting AuNPs/BPNs nanohybrids were characterized by UV-vis, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The content of BPNs plays an essential role in modulating the morphologies and chemical states of AuNPs/BPNs hybrids, which have been investigated systematically and are discussed in detail. As high-density ultrasmall AuNPs are properly stabilized and accommodated without passivation by the surrounding ultrathin BPNs, the resulting AuNPs/BPNs hybrids exhibit excellent catalytic/antibacterial properties and long-term stabilities, benefiting from a possible synergistic enhancement effect between AuNPs and BPNs constructs. This simple, mild and environmentally benign strategy could be generalized to the preparation of other metal- or metal oxide-doped complexes and holds great promise for potential catalytic, bioanalytical and biomedical applications.