CuS/Co-Ferrocene-MOF Nanocomposites for Photothermally Enhanced Chemodynamic Antibacterial Therapy

Infections caused by bacteria pose a serious threat to public health, and there is a need for numerous innovative, antibiotic-free antimicrobial medicines. Herein, we describe the synthesis of CuS/Co-ferrocene-MOF (CuS/Co-Fc-MOF) nanocomposites, formed by coupling CuS nanoparticles (NPs) to two-dimensional (2D) Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets, that constitutes an antimicrobial platform capable of near-infrared (NIR) photothermal promotion of chemodynamic antibacterial. 2D CuS/Co-Fc-MOF nanocomposites consist of Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets with dimensions of approximately 100-200 nm and thicknesses of 13.1-15.6 nm, where CuS NPs, with a size of about 8 nm, are excellently dispersed on the surface of Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets. The diverse valence states of cobalt and iron in the CuS/Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets enable them to undergo Fenton-like reactions with H2O2, thus generating highly oxidizing <middle dot>OH for chemodynamic therapy (CDT). The utilization of the local surface plasmonic resonance effect of CuS NPs enables the enhancement of CDT activity in CuS/Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets under near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. More importantly, CuS/Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets can achieve rapid (15 min) NIR laser-assisted killing of both S. aureus and E. coli in a bacterial infection microenvironment compared to Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets. Therefore, the CuS/Co-Fc-MOF nanosheets can be employed as a promising nanoagent to promote photothermally augmented chemodynamic antibacterial therapy.