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 ·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.