A porous Pd nanodendrite with superior oxidase-like activity for enhanced antibacterial applications

Abstract

Bacterial infections severely threaten public health, necessitating the urgent development of new antibacterial agents due to rising bacterial resistance. To this end, we developed porous Pd nanodendrites (Pd NDs) with superior oxidase (OXD) mimetic activity by using a carbon dot (CD)-mediated method for antibacterial applications. To optimise their antibacterial activity, the Pd NDs were synthesised using CDs prepared by three different methods.The results indicate that porous and dendritic nanostructures not only favor bacterial adhesion but also have superior OXD mimetic activity, catalyzing oxygen rapid production of large amounts of ROS to kill bacteria, thus all offer high antibacterial efficiencies. Furthermore, Pd NDs, composed of numerous small Pd nanozymes with excellent catalytic activity, demonstrated enhanced OXD mimetic performance and stronger antibacterial effects as the size of the NDs increased.