Construction of antibacterial silicone rubber catheter modified with the biomass carbon dots and its properties

To endow silicone rubber (SR) catheter with antibacterial property, the SR catheter was modified with a new kind of biomass carbon dots (CDs) by the bulk modification to obtabin the SR/CDs catheter. The antimicrobial behavior and biocompatibility of SR/CDs catheter were analyzed by plate counting method, cytotoxicity test and<i>in vivo</i>animal experiments. The results showed that, SR/CDs catheter possessed antimicrobial properties, and the minimum inhibitory concentration of SR/CDs catheter was 20 mg ml^-1against<i>Escherichia coli</i>and<i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>. The antimicrobial mechanism of SR/CDs was further investigated, and it was found that the SR/CDs induced the production of reactive oxygen species in bacterial cells by disrupting the bacterial membrane through adsorption. In addition,<i>in vivo</i>experiments have shown that SR/CDs catheter owns good biosafety profile and reduces the risk of catheter-associated urinary tract infections by modulating inflammatory factors. Meanwhile, SR/CDs catheter can be produced in a simple production process using an extruder, which is expected to be used as a novelty type of catheter in the clinic.