Biocompatible, antibacterial, and antifungal two-dimensional silicene nanosheets with a honeycomb hexagonal structure

In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have shown promise as antimicrobial nanoscale agents to overcome antimicrobial resistance. Recently, studies investigating the biological activity of antimicrobial monoelemental 2D nanomaterials such as graphene, borophene, and germanene in biomedical applications have gained momentum. In this study, the silicene nanosheet was fabricated using a simple high-energy sonication method. The silicene nanosheets were characterized by various techniques such as HRTEM, XRD, and FTIR. According to the characterization results, the silicene nanosheet had unique morphology and structure with nano-size, crystallinity, ultra-thin shape, and stability. In particular, microbiological results of the nanostructure showed that it had efficient antibacterial and antifungal activities against various pathogens such as Gram-positive strains, Gram-negative bacteria, and fungal strains. The cytotoxicity study performed by MTT assay indicates the cytocompatibility of silicene nanosheets. This work has shown that the hexagonal honeycomb silicene nanosheet exhibits excellent antibacterial and antifungal activities with good biocompatibility and thus could be developed as a novel strategy for use in biomedical applications.