Design of BODIPY functional ZIF-90 towards enhanced visible-light driven antibacterial performance

Abstract

The development of novel antibacterial materials and a therapeutic strategy to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria is currently a very active research area. The photoactivation of nano-antibacterial agents has attracted considerable interest because of their multimodal antibacterial effect and no drug resistance. In this study, a novel visible light-activated antibacterial composite (BODIPY-ZIF-90) is synthetized by grafting a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) photosensitizer on ZIF-90 via a simple aldehyde and amine condensation reaction. BODIPY-ZIF-90 has a uniform rhombic dodecahedron structure with a diameter of 110 nm and micropore volume of 0.03 cm³ g⁻¹. Compared with the individual ZIF-90 and BODIPY photosensitizer, BODIPY-ZIF-90 exhibits strong synergistic visible light-induced (LED 7W) antibiotic property and the MIC is about 5 μg mL⁻¹ to E. coli and S. aureus. BODIPY photosensitizer broaden light absorption region of the composite, and simultaneously the high porosity of ZIF-90 inhibits BODIPY aggregation. The synergetic effect between the BODIPY photosensitizer and ZIF-90 improves ROS generation and accelerates the Zn ions release, which are favorable for light-activated antibacterial activity of BODIPY-ZIF-90. Our work not only provides a feasible strategy to build a light-responsive antibacterial nanoplatform, but also introduces a simple fabrication method for stimuli-responsive porous materials.