Assembling patchy plasmonic nanoparticles with aggregation-dependent antibacterial activity

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel antibacterial nanomaterial created by assembling patchy plasmonic colloids with tunable optical and catalytic properties, enhancing antibacterial activity against resistant bacteria.

Contribution

It introduces a method to self-assemble patchy plasmonic nanoparticles with controlled size and aggregation-dependent antibacterial and catalytic functions.

Findings

Assembly size influences optical response from visible to near infrared

Aggregation enhances catalytic and antibacterial activity

Nanomaterials show promise for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria

Abstract

We realise an antibacterial nanomaterial based on the self-limited assembly of patchy plasmonic colloids, obtained by adsorption of lysozyme to gold nanoparticles. The possibility of selecting the size of the assemblies within several hundred nanometres allows for tuning their optical response in a wide range of frequencies from visible to near infrared. We also demonstrate an aggregation-dependent modulation of the catalytic activity, which results in an enhancement of the antibacterial performances for assemblies of the proper size. The gained overall control on structure, optical properties and biological activity of such nanomaterial paves the way for the development of novel antibacterial nanozymes with promising applications in treating multi drug resistant bacteria.