Visible-light driven rapid bacterial inactivation on red phosphorus/titanium oxide nanofiber heterostructures

Photocatalytic water disinfection has emerged as a promising approach for water purification. However, exploring efficient and rapid visible light driven materials for photocatalytic bacterial inactivation is still a challenging problem. Herein, red phosphorus/titanium oxide (TiO2@RP) nanofibers were developed for effective water disinfection by a vacuum ampoule strategy. The complete E. coli and S. aureus (7-log CFU mL(-1)) could be rapidly killed within 25 min and 30 min over the optimized TiO2@RP heterostructure under the white LED irradiation. The efficient photocatalytic antibacterial activity should be mainly ascribed to the synergetic enhancement in light absorption by RP decoration and charge migration and separation by the interface between TiO2 and RP. And then more unpaired photo-carriers would be transferred to the surface to facilitate the generation of photo-holes, center dot O-2(-) radicals, and H2O2 species, which could destroy the bacterial cells efficiently.

Automated summary

Red phosphorus/titanium oxide nanofibers were developed for efficient water disinfection, rapidly killing E. coli and S. aureus under white LED irradiation. The enhanced antibacterial activity was mainly attributed to improved light absorption and charge separation at the TiO2@RP interface.