In situ deposition of Ag/Zn-MOFs on the surface of non-woven fabrics for effective antibacterial activity

Metal-organic frameworks nanocomposites emerged as a novel functional material that has been reported to combine with metal nanoparticles for enhancing antibacterial activity through synergy. Herein, Ag nanoparticles and zinc-metal-organic frameworks nanocomposites are successfully in-situ synthesized on the surface of non-woven fabrics carrier via solution-immerse-growth method. The obtained product (ZA/NWF) shows superior utilization of visible light than the sample that prepared without Ag nanoparticles. Moreover, the generated reactive oxygen species by ZA/NWF is also more abundant, which indicates the effective visible light utilization of the as-obtained material. ZA/NWF shows considerable bactericidal effect against Escherichia coli with a nearly 100% bactericidal rate under visible light illumination, which is significantly higher than that of Zn ²⁺ (70.3%) and 2-methylimidazole (71.8%). A proposed antibacterial mechanism suggests that hydroxyl radical (·OH) and superoxide radicals (·O ₂ ^- ) generated during the antibacterial process are conducive to the inhibition of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, ZA/NWF shows comparable sterilization efficiency of over 95% after the sixth antibacterial assay. Overall, a facile and convenient antibacterial material integrated structure and property is presented in this work and the composite with competitive photocatalytic antibacterial activity can be potentially applied in the large-scale antibacterial study.