Khan, Saad UllahEren, Guncem OzgunAtac, NazliOnal, AsimQureshi, Mohammad HaroonCooper, Francis KorsheNizamoglu, Sedat2025-09-252025-09-2520241385-89471873-3212https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.148140https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12573/3309Qureshi, Mohammad Haroon/0000-0002-2376-1246; Onal, Asim/0000-0003-3682-6042; Almammadov, Toghrul/0000-0002-1336-4650; Sahin, Mehmet/0000-0002-9419-1711; Kolemen, Safacan/0000-0003-4162-5587The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria as a global health threat has necessitated the exploration of alternative treatments to combat bacterial infections. Among these, photocatalytic nanomaterials such as quantum dots (QDs) have shown great promise and type-I QDs have been investigated thus far. In this study, we introduce type-II InP/ZnO core/shell QDs that are ligand-exchanged with a short-chain inorganic sulfide ion (S2-) for antibacterial activity. Interestingly, InP/ZnO QDs simultaneously generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) including hydroxyl (center dot OH) and superoxide (O-2(center dot-) ) radicals, while only O-2(center dot-) radicals can be released by the type-I sulfide-capped InP/ZnS QDs. The optimized nanostructure achieved effective inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli bacteria growth to the level of 99.99% and 70.31% under low-intensity green light illumination of 5 mW.cm(-2). Our findings highlight the importance of type-II QDs as a new avenue for developing effective antibacterial agents against drug-resistant pathogens.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessQuantum DotAntibacterialType-IIINPReactive Oxygen SpeciesROSPseudomonas AeruginosaEscherichia ColiZNoZnSArticle10.1016/j.cej.2023.1481402-s2.0-85180555202