Abstract
MXene are a group of inorganic two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial, and have raised significant interests in biomedical areas. Ti3C2Tx, as an important member of MXene family, is widely studied because of its biodegradability and low-cytotoxicity. However, their single antibacterial mechanism and poor stability in aqueous solution need to be improved, especially for the antimicrobial applications. In this work, a MXene-based hybrid antibacterial system (M-HAS) was developed and its synergistic antibacterial activity was investigated. In the M-HAS, 2D few-layer Ti3C2Tx (FL-Ti3C2Tx) was modified with hydrophilic polymers and thereby used as carriers for silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). By assembling these two substrates, photodynamic performance of the prepared system is significantly improved with a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production under 660 nm laser. Antibacterial effects of the M-HAS are enhanced by over 4 times with irradiation. In another word, the developed hybrid system displays excellent photodynamic antibacterial synergistic properties. This work takes full advantage of the photodynamic properties of every component in the MAS to achieve efficient antibacterial activity and proposes an innovative approach to develop the 2D FL-Ti3C2Tx-based antibacterial platform.