Engineered Hollow Cu2O@ZnO p-n Heterojunction Nanocomposites for Synergistic Photocatalytic Disinfection and Tissue Regeneration

Abstract

Photocatalytic antibacterial therapy is a promising method for wound disinfection and treatment. However, the weak photocatalytic antibacterial activity of ZnO stimulated by visible light limits its applications. In this study, porous Cu2O@ZnO heterojunctions with enhanced visible light response are successfully synthesized by coupling ZnO and Cu2O using a one-pot water bath method. The Cu2O@ZnO can be used to treat bacterial infection under yellow light irradiation with a high efficacy of 99.99% due to the enhanced photocatalytic activity. This is mainly due to the p-n heterojunction in Cu2O@ZnO, which can accelerate charge transfer and effectively suppress the photogenerated electron-hole pair recombination. Animal experiment results demonstrate that Cu2O@ZnO not only possesses excellent antibacterial activity upon yellow light irradiation, but also facilitates the angiogenesis and inhibits inflammation, resulting in successful infectious wound regeneration in mice. Therefore, this heterojunction material can serve as a promising platform for effective healing of bacteria-infected wounds.

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Jul 2025
Accepted
19 Aug 2025
First published
20 Aug 2025

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2025, Accepted Manuscript

Engineered Hollow Cu2O@ZnO p-n Heterojunction Nanocomposites for Synergistic Photocatalytic Disinfection and Tissue Regeneration

F. Yu, X. Miao, X. Yang, J. Deng, D. Deng, C. Xinyan, R. Ding and X. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2025, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D5TB01635E

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