Preparation of Two-Dimensional Pd@Ir Nanosheets and Application in Bacterial Infection Treatment by the Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species

Abstract

Noble metal nanozymes have shown great promise in biomedicine; however, developing novel and high-performance noble metal nanozymes is still highly pressing and challenging. Herein, we, for the first time, prepared two-dimensional (2D) Pd@Ir bimetal nanosheets (NSs) with well-defined size and composition by a facile seed-mediated growth strategy. Enzyme-mimicked investigations find that the Pd@Ir NSs possess oxidase (OXD)-, peroxidase (POD)-, and catalase (CAT)-like multienzyme-mimetic activities. Especially, they exhibited much higher OXD- and POD-like activities than individual Pd NSs and Ir nanoparticles (NPs). The density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the adsorption energy of O₂ on Pd@Ir NSs is lower than that on the pure Pd NSs, which is more favorable for the conversion of O₂ molecules from the triplet state (³O₂) into the singlet state (¹O₂). Finally, based on the outstanding nanozyme activities to yield highly active singlet oxygen (¹O₂) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) as well as excellent biosafety, the as-prepared Pd@Ir NSs were applied to treat bacteria-infected wounds, and satisfactory therapeutic outcomes were achieved. We believe that the highly efficient 2D Pd@Ir nanozyme will be an effective therapeutic reagent for various biomedical applications.