Antibacterial, photothermal and stable Ag-titanium-oxo-clusters hydrogel designed for wound healing

Titanium-oxo-clusters (TOCs), due to its precise, tunable structure and rich properties, have been widely used in many fields. However, application of TOCs is greatly limited in biomedical area owing to the impact of its own performances, for example, unstable structure, lack of antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties required as biomedical materials. In this work, we developed a novel stable, excellent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties Ag-Titanium-oxo-cluster (Ag-TOC, Ag9Ti4) with active site Ag and salicylic acid by one-step solvothermal method, through introducing silver and salicylic acid. Then, the Ag9Ti4 cluster was introduced into the dopamine-containing hydrogel system, the results in vitro indicated this Ag9Ti4 cluster hydrogel system possesses good antibacterial and photothermal properties. Moreover, the results in vivo indicated the Ag9Ti4 hydrogel system showed better anti-inflammatory and wound healing ability under NIR condition. Combined with its excellent properties, we believed that the construction of antibacterial, photothermal and stable Ag-TOC hydrogel system can provide a new strategy for the expanding biomedical applications of TOCs.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

In this study, a stable and highly effective antibacterial and anti-inflammatory Ag-Titanium-oxo-cluster (Ag-TOC, Ag9Ti4) was developed through one-step solvothermal method by introducing silver and salicylic acid. The Ag9Ti4 cluster was incorporated into a dopamine-containing hydrogel system, which exhibited excellent antibacterial and photothermal properties in vitro. Furthermore, the Ag9Ti4 hydrogel system demonstrated superior anti-inflammatory and wound healing ability under NIR condition in vivo. The construction of the antibacterial, photothermal, and stable Ag-TOC hydrogel system provides a new strategy for expanding the biomedical applications of TOCs.