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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379686
Research Project: Characterization and Mitigation of Bacterial Pathogens in the Fresh Produce Production and Processing Continuum

Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory

Title: Photo-triggered on-demand carvacrol vapor release from nano-generators for non-contact bacterial inactivation between nanomaterials and bacteria

Author
item NONG, WENGQIAN - Zhejiang University
item GUAN, WEILIANG - Zhejiang University
item YIN, YANG - Zhejiang University
item LU, CHONG - Shanghai Jiaotong University
item WANG, QIN - University Of Maryland
item Luo, Yaguang - Sunny
item ZHANG, BOCE - University Of Massachusetts
item WU, JUN - Zhejiang University
item GUAN, YONGGUANG - Shanghai Jiaotong University

Submitted to: Chemical Engineering Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/12/2021
Publication Date: 4/18/2021
Citation: Nong, W., Guan, W., Yin, Y., Lu, C., Wang, Q., Luo, Y., Zhang, B., Wu, J., Guan, Y. 2021. Photothermal metal-organic framework nano-generators for non-contact microorganism inactivation. Advanced Functional Materials. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.129874.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.129874

Interpretive Summary: Foodborne illness outbreaks have significantly impacted public health. Novel technologies to kill harmful bacteria are needed to improve food safety. Here we report a new strategy to inactivate bacteria using a photo-triggered release of essential oil vapor. A metal-organic framework (MOF) containing carvacrol was developed, and the release of carvacrol was triggered via a magnetic assembly. Results showed strong antibacterial efficacy of carvacrol against both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria. Findings will benefit food processors in developing novel technologies to control food-borne disease.

Technical Abstract: Pathogen contamination on food product is a major public health concern. Although conventional antimicrobial nanomaterials represent promise in inactivating food-borne human pathogens through direct contact between the target microorganisms and antimicrobial nanomaterials, potential migration of the nanomaterials in edible products raises safety concerns. Here, we propose a non-contact antibacterial strategy by developing a novel photo-triggered metal-organic framework (MOF) nano-generator for releasing antibacterial essential oil vapor. In principle, the photo-triggered nano-generator (Fe3O4@PDA-COOH@ZIF-67/carvacrol, FPZC) is composed of photothermal Fe3O4@PDA-COOH cores in cobalt zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) shells with loaded carvacrol. This FPZC has magnetic assembly and photo-thermal conversion capacities. Irradiating FPZC can rapidly release carvacrol vapor by increased temperature to weaken dipole-type interactions between carvacrol and FPZ. The released carvacrol delivers through the air to inactivate bacteria. Results demonstrated that higher than 5 times of carvacrol vapor was released in the air from laser irradiated FPZC compared to naturally volatilized carvacrol. Both Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria at an initial colony count of 1.0 × 105 could be completely inactivated via irradiating 80 mg FPZC for 60 s. This non-contact antibacterial strategy allows safe and efficient inactivation of bacteria without nanomaterial migration.