VC Nanosheets as Dual-Functional Antibacterial Agents.

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains have been continuously increasing and becoming a supreme threat to public health globally. The nanoparticle-based photothermal treatment has emerged as a powerful tool to combat toxic bacteria. Photothermal agents (PTAs) with cost-effective and high photothermal conversion efficiency are highly desirable. Herein, we unite the green process for delamination of VAlC to produce a high yield mass of two-dimensional (2D) VC nanosheets (NSs) by using algae extracts and demonstrate their high antibacterial efficiency. The resultant VC NSs present decent structural reliability and intrinsic antibacterial ability. Powerful near-infrared (NIR) absorption and extraordinary photothermal conversion proficiency make it a good PTA for the photothermal treatment of bacteria. The antibacterial efficiency evaluation indicated that VC NSs could effectively kill both Gram-positive and Gram-negative . About 99.5% of both types of bacteria could be killed with low-dose of VC NSs suspension (40 μg/mL) with 5 min NIR irradiation due to the intrinsic antibacterial ability and photothermal effect of VC NSs, which is much higher than previous reports on TaC, TiC, MoSe, and NbC. This work expands the application of MXene VC NSs for rapid bacteria-killing and would gain promising attention for applications in the sterilization industry.