DNA-Assisted Exfoliation of Tungsten Dichalcogenides and Their Antibacterial Effect

This study reports a method for the facile and high-yield exfoliation of WX2 (X = S, Se) by sonication under aqueous conditions using single-stranded DNA (abbreviated as ssDNA) of high molecular weight. The ssDNA provided a high degree of stabilization and prevented reaggregation, and it enhanced the exfoliation efficiency of WX2 nanosheets due to adsorption on the WX2 surface and the electrostatic repulsion of sugars in the ssDNA backbone. The exfoliation yield was higher with ssDNA (80%-90%) than without (2%-4%); the yield with ssDNA was also higher than the value previously reported for aqueous exfoliation (∼10%). Given that two-dimensional nanomaterials have potential health and environmental applications, we investigated antibacterial activity of exfoliated WX2-ssDNA nanosheets, relative to graphene oxide (GO), and found that WSe2-ssDNA nanosheets had higher antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 cells than GO. Our method enables large-scale exfoliation in an aqueous environment in a single step with a short reaction time and under ambient conditions, and it can be used to produce surface-active or catalytic materials that have broad applications in biomedicine and other areas.