Trifunctional Cu-Mesh/Cu2O@FeO-nanoarrays for highly efficient degradation of antibiotic, inactivation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and damage of antibiotics resistance genes

Abstract

Trifunctional Cu-mesh/Cu2O@FeO-nanoarrays heterostructure is designed and fabricated by integrating Cu2O@FeO-nanoarrays onto Cu-mesh (CM) via an in situ growth and phase-transformation process. It is successfully applied to efficiently mitigate the antibiotic pollution, including degradation of antibiotics, inactivation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and damage of antibiotics resistance genes (ARGs). Under visible-light irradiation, CM/Cu2O@FeO-nanoarrays exhibits a superior degradation efficiency on antibiotics (e.g., up to 99% in 25 min for tetracycline hydrochloride, TC), due to the generated reactive oxygen species (ROS), especially the dominant ·O2−. It can fully inactivate E. coli (HB101) with initial number of ~108 CFU·mL-1 in 10 min, which is mainly attributed to the synergistic effects of 1D nanostructure, dissolved metal ions and generated ROS. Meanwhile it is able to damage ARGs after 180 min of photodegradation, including tetA (vs. TC) of 3.3 log10, aphA (vs. kanamycin sulfate, KAN) of 3.4 log10, and tnpA (vs. ampicillin, AMP) of 4.4 log10, respectively. This work explores a green way for treating antibiotic pollution under visible-light