Clinically, it is difficult to endow implants with excellent osteogenic ability and antibacterial activity simultaneously. Herein, the self-activating implants modified with hydroxyapatite (HA)/MoS₂ coating are designed to prevent Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) infections and accelerate bone regeneration simultaneously. The electron transfer between bacteria and HA/MoS₂ is triggered when bacteria contacted with the material. RNA sequencing data reveals that the expression level of anaerobic respiration–related genes is up-regulated and the expression level of aerobic respiration–related genes is down-regulated when bacteria adhere to the implants. HA/MoS₂ presents a highly effective antibacterial efficacy against both S. aureus and E. coli because of bacterial respiration–activated metabolic pathway changes. Meanwhile, this coating promotes the osteoblastic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells by altering the potentials of cell membrane and mitochondrial membrane. The proposed strategy exhibits great potential to endow implants with self-activating anti-infection performance and osteogenic ability simultaneously.

We investigate the enhanced absorption properties in a wavelength range of 0.2-25 μm for NiTi alloy targets structured by femtosecond laser pulses in air. Three different types of surface structures are produced with varying laser fluences. Measured reflectances through integrating sphere technique show that their couplings of incident electromagnetic irradiations are improved greatly over the broadband wavelength range. In particular, for coral-like micro-structures on the metal surfaces, approximate 90% absorption can be achieved from ultraviolet to mid-infrared region. Cut-off wavelengths of the enhanced absorption for the varied dimensional surface structures are determined experimentally. Chemical analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that blackness of metal surfaces is not attributed to the change in elemental composition. The physics of such remarkable absorption for the structured metal surfaces are discussed as well.