Antibacterial Activity of Oxygen Vacancy-Mediated ROS Production of V[sub.6]O[sub.13] Powder against ICandida albicans/I

The emergence of drug resistance due to the overuse of antibiotics has made the prevention and treatment of invasive fungal infections caused by Candida albicans (C. albicans) a great challenge. Oxygen vacancy-rich inorganic materials show great promise in the antimicrobial field due to their unique physicochemical properties. Defect engineering can significantly optimize the electronic structure of inorganic materials to further enhance their antimicrobial activity. We designed oxygen vacancy defect-rich V[sub.6] O[sub.13] powders using the hydrothermal-calcination method and investigated their anti-C. albicans activity. The results showed that the stronger antibacterial activity is attributed to the fact that the optimized V[sub.6] O[sub.13] powder oxygen vacancy defects induced a reduction reaction of dissolved oxygen in the environment, which produced ROS with strong oxidative properties, causing damage to the wall membrane of C. albicans and leakage of intracellular material. The minimum inhibitory concentration (99% or more inhibition) of V[sub.6] O[sub.13] powders is 4 mg/mL. This work not only provides a facile method for constructing oxygen-rich vacancies in V[sub.6] O[sub.13] powders, but also provides new insights into the potential of inorganic materials optimized by defect engineering for efficient antimicrobial activity.