A general strategy to generate oxygen vacancies in bimetallic layered double hydroxides for water oxidation.

A general electrocatalyst design for water splitting through generating oxygen vacancies in bimetallic layered double hydroxides by using carbon nitride is proposed. The excellent OER activity of the achieved bimetallic layered double hydroxides is attributed to oxygen vacancies, which reduce the energy barrier of the rate-determining step.

Copper single-atom catalysts with photothermal performance and enhanced nanozyme activity for bacteria-infected wound therapy.

Nanozymes have become a new generation of antibiotics with exciting broad-spectrum antibacterial properties and negligible biological toxicity. However, their inherent low catalytic activity limits their antibacterial properties. Herein, Cu single-atom sites/N doped porous carbon (Cu SASs/NPC) is successfully constructed for photothermal-catalytic antibacterial treatment by a pyrolysis-etching-adsorption-pyrolysis (PEAP) strategy. Cu SASs/NPC have stronger peroxidase-like catalytic activity, glutathione (GSH)-depleting function, and photothermal property compared with non-Cu-doped NPC, indicating that Cu doping significantly improves the catalytic performance of nanozymes. Cu SASs/NPC can effectively induce peroxidase-like activity in the presence of H2O2, thereby generating a large amount of hydroxyl radicals (•OH), which have a certain killing effect on bacteria and make bacteria more susceptible to temperature. The introduction of near-infrared (NIR) light can generate hyperthermia to fight bacteria, and enhance the peroxidase-like catalytic activity, thereby generating additional •OH to destroy bacteria. Interestingly, Cu SASs/NPC can act as GSH peroxidase (GSH-Px)-like nanozymes, which can deplete GSH in bacteria, thereby significantly improving the sterilization effect. PTT-catalytic synergistic antibacterial strategy produces almost 100% antibacterial efficiency against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In vivo experiments show a better PTT-catalytic synergistic therapeutic performance on MRSA-infected mouse wounds. Overall, our work highlights the wide antibacterial and anti-infective bio-applications of Cu single-atom-containing catalysts.