Host–Guest Interaction-Mediated Photo/Temperature Dual-Controlled Antibacterial Surfaces
Yifeng Ni, Dong Zhang, Yang Wang, Xiaomin He, Jian He, Huimin Wu, Jingfeng Yuan, Dongyong Sha, Lingbin Che, Jun Tan, Jintao Yang
Abstract
Development of smart switchable surfaces to solve the inevitable bacteria attachment and colonization has attracted much attention; however, it proves very challenging to achieve on-demand regeneration for noncontaminated surfaces. We herein report a smart, host–guest interaction-mediated photo/temperature dual-controlled antibacterial surface, topologically combining stimuli-responsive polymers with nanobactericide. From the point of view of long-chain polymer design, the peculiar hydration layer generated by hydrophilic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (polyHEMA) segments severs the route of initial bacterial attachment and subsequent proliferation, while the synergistic effect on chain conformation transformation poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (polyNIPAM) and guest complex dissociation azobenzene/cyclodextrin (Azo/CD) complex greatly promotes the on-demand bacterial release in response to the switch of temperature and UV light. Therefore, the resulting surface exhibits triple successive antimicrobial functions simultaneously: (i) resists ∼84.9% of initial bacterial attachment, (ii) kills ∼93.2% of inevitable bacteria attack, and (iii) releases over 94.9% of killed bacteria even after three cycles. The detailed results not only present a potential and promising strategy to develop renewable antibacterial surfaces with successive antimicrobial functions but also contribute a new antimicrobial platform to biomedical or surgical applications.