Antibacterial activity of fullerene water suspensions (nC60) is not due to ROS-mediated damage

The cytotoxic and antibacterial properties of nC(60), a buckminsterfullerene water suspension, have been attributed to photocatalytically generated reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, in this work, neither ROS production nor ROS-mediated damage is found in nC(60)-exposed bacteria. Furthermore, the colorimetric methods used to evaluate ROS production and damage are confounded by interactions between nC(60) and the reagents, yielding false positives. Instead, we propose that nC(60) exerts ROS-independent oxidative stress, thus reconciling conflicting results in the literature.