Multifunctional Plasmonic/Metal–Organic Framework Biohybrid Aerogels

A biotemplated <i>in situ</i> growth method was employed to fabricate self-supporting metal-organic framework (MOF) aerogels using bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) and collagen foam as templates. The one-step synthesis method enables uniform and dense coating of MOF crystals (ZIF-8 and ZIF-L) on nanocellulose and collagen nanofibers, resulting in an interconnected 3D open porous network. Integrating plasmonic nanostructures with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in three-dimensional (3D) aerogels enables the realization of multifunctional materials that combine high porosity, thermal stability, electromagnetic field enhancement, and photothermal properties, therefore simultaneously supporting surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based sensing and antimicrobial functions. The plasmonic/MOF hybrid aerogels allow highly sensitive vapor-phase detection of toxic volatile organics (TVOs) including <i>p</i>-aminothiophenol (p-ATP), formalin, and aniline, harnessing the synergistic effects of MOF-assisted analyte trapping and electromagnetic field enhancement from the plasmonic nanostructures. The photothermal properties of the plasmonic/MOF aerogels together with Zn²⁺/Ag⁺ ion release resulted in high antibacterial efficacy (>99%) against <i>Escherichia coli</i> and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> under low-power laser irradiation. The simple, scalable, and versatile method demonstrated here can be extended to other functional nanomaterials and MOFs for realizing multifunctional materials with a 3D open porous architecture.