Tribocatalytic sterilization of BN2/CN Z-type heterojunctions
Publication Name
Nano Energy
Abstract
Considering advanced oxidation techniques offer new opportunities for microbial degradation and inactivation, in this study, Z-type heterojunctions of Ba1.4Sr3.6NdNb7Ti3O30-N2/g-C3N4 (BN2/CN) were successfully prepared using a solid-phase method and explored for their potential applications in tribocatalytic bactericidal inhibition. These results demonstrate that BN2/CN exhibits excellent inhibitory and inactivating effects on E. coli under tribocatalytic conditions. The UV–visible spectrum showed a gradual decrease in the survival rate of E. coli with the increase of tribocatalysis time, reaching an inactivation effect of 91% after 1 h, while fluorescence staining also confirmed that E. coli were essentially eliminated, with hardly any surviving bacteria observed under a laser confocal microscope. Hence, this study presents a novel catalytic approach for sterilization. Moreover, inhibition experiments demonstrated that the BN2/CN catalyst did not inhibit the growth of E. coli, tribocatalysis played a crucial role in the disinfection and sterilization processes. The inactivation of bacteria by BN2/CN catalyst was still above 90% after multiple cycles of sterilization experiments. Finally, we demonstrated that the production of •OH and •O2- during tribocatalysis is key to the inactivation of E. coli, thus achieving the desired effect of tribocatalytic sterilization.
Open Access Status
This publication is not available as open access
Volume
122
Article Number
109284
Funding Number
ZY20220101
Funding Sponsor
Australian Research Council