Self-Cleaning Mechano-Bactericidal Surfaces by Metal-Organic Framework Embedded Polycaprolactone Composites

Journal article, 2026

Mechano-bactericidal (MB) surfaces mitigate the formation of bacterial biofilm through physical interactions without the use of antibiotics. One challenge of MB surfaces is that unremoved dead bacteria and other debris on MB surfaces could impede contact between bacteria and surface nanostructures, thus reducing their bactericidal efficiency. Herein, we report metal-organic framework (MOF)-polycaprolactone (PCL) composites as self-cleaning MB surfaces. The MIL-88B-on-UiO-66 (MoU) hybrids with nano features provide MB actions and PCL with biodegradability enables surface cleaning and refreshment. The MoU-PCL composite demonstrated effective antibacterial performance toward Pseudomonas aeruginosa (77.0%) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (89.6%) for 72 h growth. The surface degradation of MoU-PCL composites over 4 weeks confirmed the feasibility of removing surface debris and dangling MOFs to offer long-term MB performance. Our approach enables the development of MB surfaces for applications requiring a relatively long service period.