2 research outputs found
Stretchable, NanoâCrumpled MXene Multilayers Impart LongâTerm Antibacterial Surface Properties
Abstract Infections are a significant risk to patients who receive medical implants, and can often lead to implant failure, tissue necrosis, and even amputation. So far, although various surface modification approaches are proposed for prevention and treatment of microbial biofilms on indwelling medical devices, most are too expensive/complicated to fabricate, unscalable, or limited in durability for clinical use. Here, this work presents a new bottomâup design for fabricating scalable and durable nanoâpatterned coatings with dynamic topography for longâterm antibacterial effects. This work shows that MXene layerâbyâlayer (LbL) selfâassembled coatingsâwith finely tunable crumpled structures with nanometer resolution and excellent mechanical durabilityâcan be successfully fabricated on stretchable poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The crumpled MXene coating with sharpâedged peaks shows potent antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. In addition, this work finds that onâdemand dynamic deformation of the crumpled coating can remove â„99% of adhered bacterial cells for both species, resulting in a clean surface with restored functionality. This approach offers improved practicality, scalability, and antibacterial durability over previous methods, and its flexibility may lend itself to many types of biomaterials and implantable devices