The growing problem of antimicrobial resistance has become a serious threat to human health. Loading single atoms onto carbon-based materials is a new strategy to develop environmentally friendly and stable photothermal antibacterial nanomaterials. We report the successful synthesis of carbon black nanomaterials doped with copper single atoms, nickel single atoms, and gold single atoms of similar mass concentration guided by theoretical calculations. The introduction of metal single atoms fundamentally changed the electronic structure of the original carbon black and resulted in high photothermal properties and antibacterial activity. Among these antimicrobial materials, the copper-doped material is more active than the other two, which is consistent with our theoretical calculations. Also, the combination of theoretical calculations and experimental validation suggests an intrinsic mechanism of bactericidal activity. This strategy has the potential to be extended to other single-atom doped systems with improved photothermal properties.

日益严重的抗菌素耐药性问题已成为对人类健康的严重威胁。将单个原子加载到碳基材料上是开发环境友好且稳定的光热抗菌纳米材料的新策略。我们报告了在理论计算的指导下成功合成了掺杂有类似质量浓度的铜单原子、镍单原子和金单原子的炭黑纳米材料。金属单原子的引入从根本上改变了原始炭黑的电子结构，并产生了高光热性能和抗菌活性。在这些抗菌材料中，掺铜材料的活性高于其他两种，这与我们的理论计算一致。还有，理论计算和实验验证的结合表明了杀菌活性的内在机制。该策略有可能扩展到其他具有改进光热性能的单原子掺杂系统。