Synergistic physicochemical defense: integrating hydrophobic repulsion with spontaneous oxidase-mimetic activity to construct antibacterial and anti-biofilm nanofiber membranes.

Nanofiber membranes loaded with nanozymes exhibit considerable promise in the domain of sanitary protection. Existing research strategies predominantly use outside energy sources like light or electricity to enhance catalytic activity. Although these approaches improve antibacterial efficiency, they fail to address application constraints and the potential for secondary contamination from biofilms, hindering the development of practical protective devices. Herein, we propose an oxidase-mimetic Co-N-C nanozyme with thermodynamic spontaneity loaded onto a hydrophobic polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) fiber membrane substrate via electrospinning technology, achieving bactericidal and anti-biofilm effects through a synergistic "chemical (oxidase-mimetic-mediated sterilization)" and "physical (membrane hydrophobicity against biofilms)" effect. Specifically, Co-N-C enzymes can efficiently utilize water and oxygen in the air, making reactive oxygen species (ROS) all the time, which makes cell membranes less permeable and causes proteins to leak out; the sterilization rate can reach over 99%. Hydrophobic PAN/PVP fiber membranes effectively decrease bacterial adhesion on the membrane surface, thereby mitigating conditions favourable to biofilm formation. Long-term cyclic inactivation tests show that PAN/PVP/Co-N-C effectively inactivates pathogens and reduces biofilm formation by up to 90.4%. PAN/PVP/Co-N-C can serve as an ideal product for antimicrobial barrier films, with potential for expansion into other protective materials (such as masks) through technological improvements, presenting broad commercialization prospects.