Light-driven self-disinfecting textiles functionalized by PCN-224 and Ag nanoparticles

Toward the goal of preventing microbial infections in hospitals or other healthcare institutions, here we developed a self-disinfecting textile with synergistic photodynamic/photothermal antibacterial property. Porphyrinic Metal-organic frameworks (PCN-224) and Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were in situ grown on knitted cotton textile (KCT) successively to achieve rapid photodynamic antibacterial and durable bacteriostatic effect. Light-driven singlet oxygen (¹O₂) generated from PCN-224 and heat generated from Ag could function synergistically to realize rapid bacterial inactivation. Interestingly, ¹O₂ could promote Ag NPs to be degraded to release more Ag⁺ ions, achieving durable bacteriostatic effect. Antibacterial assay demonstrated 6 and 4.49 log unit inactivation toward two typical bacterial strains (E. coli and S. aureus) under Xe arc lamp in 30 min, respectively. Even after ten washes, the textile still maintained 6 log unit bacterial inactivation. Mechanism study proved light-driven ¹O₂ and heat are main factors causing bacterial inactivation, they could work synergistically to enhance bacterial inactivation efficiency. Photothermal study revealed that the textile could reach to 69 ℃ under visible light and 79.1 ℃ under 780-nm light-laser, which showed much potential in photothermal material applications. Taken together, our findings demonstrated a synergistic self-disinfecting cotton textile that exhibited constructive significance for preventing microbial infections and transmissions.