Chinese Journal of Catalysis

Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2019, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (5): 691-702.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(18)63193-6

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Light-induced ZnO/Ag/rGO bactericidal photocatalyst with synergistic effect of sustained release of silver ions and enhanced reactive oxygen species

Yunyan Wua, Lili Zhanga, Yazhou Zhoua, Lili Zhangb, Yi Lia, Qinqin Liua, Juan Hua, Juan Yanga   

  1. a School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu, China;
    b Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Chemistry of Low-Dimensional Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huaiyin Normal University, Huaian 223300, Jiangsu, China
  • Received:2018-08-13 Revised:2018-10-13 Online:2019-05-18 Published:2019-03-30
  • Contact: 10.1016/S1872-2067(18)63193-6
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51472101, 51572114, 21773062, 21577036) and the Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Chemistry of Low-Dimensional Materials (JSKC17003).

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Abstract:

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) can effectively address the issue of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections to reduce the potential toxicity of Ag NPs. Although challenging, it is, therefore, necessary to achieve the sustainable release of Ag+ ions from a finite amount of Ag NPs. This study aims at designing an efficient and benign antimicrobial silver-based ternary composite composed of photocatalysis zinc oxide (ZnO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as a carrier, in which the reactive oxygen species (ROS) excited from ZnO and Ag+ ions released from the Ag NPs cooperate to realize an effective antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus. The constant effective bacterial performance of the ternary photocatalyst with minimum Ag content can be attributed to the increase in the available quantity of ROS, which results from the enhanced separation efficiency of the photogenerated carriers. The proposed system notably realized the long-term sustainable release of Ag+ ions with low concentration for 30 days when compared with an equivalent amount of silver nitrate. Moreover, the use of the composite prevents biotoxicity and silver wastage, and imparts enhanced stability to the long-lasting antibacterial efficacy.

Key words: Zinc oxide, Silver nanoparticle, Reduced graphene oxide, Sustained Ag+ ions release, Synergistic antibacterial mechanism, Reactive oxygen species