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Superparamagnetic nickel colloidal nanocrystal clusters with antibacterial activity and bacteria binding ability

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Abstract

Recent progress in synthetic nanotechnology and the ancient use of metals in food preservation and the antibacterial treatment of wounds have prompted the development of nanometallic materials for antimicrobial applications1,2,3,4. However, the materials designed so far do not simultaneously display antimicrobial activity and the capability of binding and capturing bacteria and spores. Here, we develop a one-step pyrolysis procedure to synthesize monodisperse superparamagnetic nickel colloidal nanocrystal clusters (SNCNCs), which show both antibacterial activity and the ability to bind Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria, as well as bacterial spores. The SNCNCs are formed from a rapid burst of nickel nanoparticles, which self-assemble slowly into clusters. The clusters can magnetically extract 99.99% of bacteria and spores and provide a promising approach for the removal of microbes, including hard-to-treat microorganisms. We believe that our work illustrates the exciting opportunities that nanotechnology offers for alternative antimicrobial strategies and other applications in microbiology.

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Fig. 1: Formation and characterization of SNCNCs.
Fig. 2: Size and magnetization manipulation of SNCNCs.
Fig. 3: Antibacterial activity and binding ability of SNCNCs.
Fig. 4: Quantitative analysis of the binding and antibacterial activity of SNCNCs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank C.M. Tang, Z. Deng and Y. Wu for useful discussions and assistance with the experiments. This work was supported by the EPSRC (grant no. EP/J001902/1). X.Z. acknowledges financial support from the Young 1000 Talents Program.

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B.P., D.G.A.L.A. and R.P.A.D. initialized the project. B.P. and X.Z. conceived the idea, designed and performed the experiments, and analysed the data. D.G.A.L.A. and R.P.A.D. supervised the project. B.P. and R.P.A.D. wrote the paper, with contributions from all co-authors.

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Correspondence to Bo Peng or Roel P. A. Dullens.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figures 1–17, Supplementary Tables 1–4, Supplementary References.

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Peng, B., Zhang, X., Aarts, D.G.A.L. et al. Superparamagnetic nickel colloidal nanocrystal clusters with antibacterial activity and bacteria binding ability. Nature Nanotech 13, 478–482 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0108-0

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