Killing Oral Bacteria Using Metal-Organic Frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with enormous internal surface areas, ultrahigh porosity, and designable structure consisting of the organic and inorganic components, have potential application value that has not been fully explored in biological sterilization. In this work, the sustained release sterilization abilities of three different MOFs, i.e., [AgL]n•nH2O (p-MOF), MOF-5 and ZIF-8, against three typical oral bacteria were studied using sustained-release curve measurement, MTT reduction assay and growth curve determination. Compared with traditional antibacterial materials, like silver nitrate (AgNO3), p-MOF material exhibits better slow-release bactericidal properties. The sterilization property of MOFs containing Ag+ ion is better than that containing Zn2+ ion. And the sterilization time of MOFs in solid phase is longer than them in liquid phase, which is ascribed to the slow release rate of metal ions in frameworks of solid MOFs. And also, sustained-release property of MOFs is strongly associated...