Acceptor Regulation of Acceptor–Donor–Acceptor Type Conjugated Oligomer for Photothermal Combating of Resistant Bacteria

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Extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of photothermal agents (PTAs) to make photothermal therapy (PTT) flourish. Herein, we report three conjugated oligomer PTAs (BTP-2ThCl, BTP-2F-ThCl, and BTP-4F) with acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) structures to verify that connecting the stronger electron-absorbing acceptor groups is favored to amplify their optical properties. The optimal BTP-4F nanoparticles exhibited a photothermal conversion efficiency as high as 83% and antibacterial activity of over 99.9% against Escherichia coli with ampicillin resistance (Amp r E. coli ). The design strategy of structure regulation at the molecular level opens an avenue for application of high-performance PTAs in PTT.