Defect-engineered Cu-MoOv-based nanozyme with enhanced POD-like activity for high-efficient elimination of drug-resistant bacterial biofilms

Because bacteria pose substantial risks to public health, bacterial biofilms have attracted attention on a global scale, but properly getting rid of them still presents significant difficulties. A simple microwave approach was used to build a partial Cu doping in MoO2 (Cu-MoOv) with abundant oxygen vacancy (OV) and explore its use in biofilm destruction, which was motivated by the improved catalytic activity of nanozyme by defect engineering. The nanozyme displayed effective antibacterial properties against Gram-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (∼ 97.8 %) and Gram-negative ampicillin-resistant Escherichia coli (AREC) (∼ 96.3 %) by the generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) with lower exogenous H2O2 concentration. Notably, Cu-MoOv could eliminate biofilms with high efficiency due to Cu substitution and OV defects. The research on the antibacterial mechanism revealed that the antimicrobial effect depends on the peroxidase (POD)-like activity of Cu-MoOv, which could produce more hydroxyl radical (·OH) and destroy the biofilms and improve the penetration of carbon spots within the biofilms. This study could offer a potent method for controlling bacterial biofilm fouling since it uses flaw engineering to get rid of bacterial biofilms.