Funct. Mater. 2025; 32 (4): 663-671.
Plasmon-enhanced photocatalysis and antimicrobial activity of Ag/LaVO4:Eu3+ nanoparticle gel for wound healing
1Institute for Scintillation Materials NAS of Ukraine, 60 Nauky ave., 61072 Kharkiv, Ukraine
2Kharkiv National Medical University, 4 Nauky ave., 61022 Kharkiv, Ukraine
3I. Mechnikov Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, NAMS of Ukraine, 14-16 Grigory Skovoroda St. 61057 Kharkiv, Ukraine
The development of multifunctional biomaterials with both photocatalytic and antimicrobial properties is of great importance for biomedical applications such as wound healing. In this study, we synthesized a hybrid gel containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and europium-doped lanthanum orthovanadate nanoparticles (LaVO4:Eu3+ NPs) embedded in a poly(acrylic acid)–carbomer 940 matrix. Optical and photocatalytic experiments revealed that while LaVO4:Eu3+ NPs alone require high-energy UV excitation (\<300 nm) to generate electron–hole pairs, their combination with AgNPs enables efficient plasmon-mediated enhancement under mild UV-A (395 nm) irradiation. This effect is most plausibly attributed to a hot electron injection mechanism, which promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. Biological assays demonstrated that the Ag/LaVO4:Eu3+ NPs gel completely inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 after only 10 minutes of UV-A exposure, with no bacterial recovery observed after 4 hours. The interplay of photocatalysis, photothermal activity, and intrinsic antimicrobial properties of AgNPs and LaVO4:Eu3+ contributes to the pronounced and sustained antibacterial effect. Considering the urgent challenge of antibiotic resistance, plasmon-mediated photocatalysis in multifunctional nanocomposite gels provides a powerful alternative strategy for infection control and wound healing applications.
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