ABSTRACT
The highly reactive nature of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the basis for widespread use in environmental and health-related fields. Conventionally, there are only two kinds of catalysts used for ROS generation: photocatalysts and piezocatalysts. However, their usage has been limited due to various environmental and physical factors. To address this problem, herein, we report thermoelectric materials, such as Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, and PbTe, as thermocatalysts which can produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under a small surrounding temperature difference. Being the most prevalent environmental factors in daily life, temperature and related thermal effects have tremendous potential for practical applications. To increase the practicality in everyday life, bismuth telluride nanoplates (Bi2Te3 NPs), serving as an efficient thermocatalyst, are coated on a carbon fiber fabric (Bi2Te3@CFF) to develop a thermocatalytic filter with antibacterial function. Temperature difference induced H2O2 generation by thermocatalysts results in the oxidative damage of bacteria, which makes thermocatalysts highly promising for disinfection applications. Antibacterial activity as high as 95% is achieved only by the treatment of low-temperature difference cycles. The current work highlights the horizon-shifting impacts of thermoelectric materials for real-time purification and antibacterial applications.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Bismuth/pharmacology , Disinfection/methods , Hydrogen Peroxide/pharmacology , Nanotechnology/methods , Tellurium/pharmacology , Air Filters , Anti-Bacterial Agents/chemistry , Bacteria/drug effects , Bismuth/chemistry , Environmental Restoration and Remediation , Escherichia coli/drug effects , Hydrogen Peroxide/chemistry , Nanoparticles/chemistry , Particle Size , Reactive Oxygen Species , Tellurium/chemistry , Temperature , Textiles , X-Ray DiffractionABSTRACT
Ultrasound techniques have been extensively employed for diagnostic purposes. Because of its features of low cost, easy access, and noninvasive real-time imaging, toward clinical practice it is highly anticipated to simply use diagnostic ultrasound to concurrently perform imaging and therapy. We report a H2O2-filled polymersome to display echogenic reflectivity and reactive oxygen species-mediated cancer therapy simply triggered by the microultrasound diagnostic system accompanied by MR imaging. Instead of filling common perfluorocarbons, the encapsulation of H2O2 in H2O2/Fe3O4-PLGA polymersome provides O2 as the echogenic source and (â¢)OH as the therapeutic element. On exposure to ultrasound, the polymersome can be easily disrupted to yield (â¢)OH through the Fenton reaction by reaction of H2O2 and Fe3O4. We showed that malignant tumors can be completely removed in a nonthermal process.
