Marrying luminescent Au nanoclusters to TiO₂ for visible-light-driven antibacterial application

Long-lasting yet visible-light-driven bacterial inhibition is highly desired for environmental protection and public health maintenance. However, conventional semiconductors such as titanium dioxide (TiO₂) are impotent for such antibacterial application due to their low utilization rate for visible light. Herein we report the design of a long-lasting yet visible-light-driven antibacterial agent based on marrying luminescent Au nanoclusters (Au NCs for short) to TiO₂ (TiO₂-NH₂@Au NCs). The as-obtained TiO₂-NH₂@Au NC antibacterial agent not only possesses superior utilization for visible light due to the participation of Au NCs as a good photosensitizer, but also has excellent separation efficacy of photogenerated carriers, thereby efficiently enhancing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) for killing bacteria. Consequently, the TiO₂-NH₂@Au NCs display excellent antibacterial activity with good durability against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (99.37%) and Escherichia coli (99.92%) under visible-light irradiation (λ ≥ 400 nm). This study is interesting because it provides a paradigm change in the design of long-lasting yet visible-light-driven NC-based antibacterial agents for diversified bactericidal applications.