Natural
textiles provide an ideal environment for bacterial growth,
causing harm to human health. In order to overcome this issue, a photothermal
antibacterial technique has been employed as a facile strategy in
recent years. Copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuSNPs) exhibit a satisfactory
photothermal effect and can be potentially used to construct antibacterial
textiles. Herein, we prepared a photothermal antibacterial silk fabric
via a two-step method, where a chitosan quaternary ammonium salt (QCS)
was used as a template to temporarily fix negative sulfur ions, which
were transferred to silk fibers containing copper ammonia ions. The
morphology, structure, and corresponding antibacterial ability for
the obtained CuSNP-deposited silk fabric were examined. The obtained
results revealed that the prepared materials, formed by interactions
with silk fibers and QCS chains, exhibited uniform size and typical
structural characteristics, promoting UV resistance and a good light-to-heat
conversion effect. Moreover, a rapid antibacterial efficiency of the
composite silk fabric was determined under light irradiation (400
mW/cm2), resulting in 99.99% bacteria death of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) within 5 min of irradiation. Additionally,
the antibacterial rate of CuSNP-deposited with QCS as a template (SF/QCS/CuS)
remained at a high level even after 10 washes, indicating a rapid
bonding rate of the photothermal nanoparticles. This work develops
a novel and efficient strategy for the construction of a photothermal
antibacterial silk fabric, which expands its wide applications in
the field of antibacterial materials.