Fig. 6: Enantioselective, IR-activated, and sustainable antimicrobial hydrogels.

a Photograph of a nanostructure-doped hydrogel tablet. b Photos showing levofloxacin-loaded hydrogel tablets without and with doping of (R)-DNCs-2 and (S)-DNCs-2 under irradiation with visible and UV light. c–e Photos indicating the bacteriostatic circles (BC) of S. aureus (c), E. coli (d), and P. aeruginosa (e) for tablets loaded with various concentrations of levofloxacin (c 0.00-50.00 μg mL⁻¹; d, e 0.00 and 25.00 μg mL⁻¹). f Statistical BC results for different tablets loaded with various concentrations of levofloxacin. The concentrations of the nanostructures were 100 μg mL⁻¹ (×1) and 200 μg mL⁻¹ (×2). ^*P = 0.035, ^**P = 0.024; the significant difference between BC increases of levofloxacin-loaded (S)-DNCs-2/AGH and (R)-DNCs-2/AGH. g, h Pictures (g) and statistical results (h) indicating sustainable release performance based on the period-dependent BCs of diverse levofloxacin-loaded hydrogel tablets. The red curves in h show the BCs of hydrogel tablets without levofloxacin. ^*P = 0.008, ^**P = 0.007; significant difference between levofloxacin-loaded (S)-DNCs-2/AGH and (R)-DNCs-2/AGH in the 3rd and 4th periods of sustained antimicrobial experiments. i Diverse tablets irradiated with IR light for a period of 60 s. j BC changes in AGH, (S)-DNCs-2/AGH, and (R)-DNCs-2/AGH tablets before and after IR activation. The tablets were loaded with different concentrations of levofloxacin. ^*P = 0.004, ^**P = 0.001, ^***P = 0.032; the significant difference between IR-induced BC changes for levofloxacin-loaded (S)-DNCs-2/AGH and (R)-DNCs-2/AGH. k BC changes indicating IR-activation improved the drug release performance in sustainable antimicrobial applications. The concentration of levofloxacin was 18.0 μg mL⁻¹. ^*P = 0.024, ^**P = 0.004, ^***P = 0.005; the significant difference between IR-induced BC changes for levofloxacin-loaded (S)-DNCs-2/AGH and (R)-DNCs-2/AGH in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd periods of sustained antimicrobial experiments. l Scheme showing wound repair using levofloxacin-loaded (R)-DNCs-2 agarose aerogels with IR-activated and sustainable release. f, h, j, k Error bars represent the SDs of independent experiments (n = 3). Data are presented as the mean values ± SDs. Statistical analysis was performed through one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.