Fig. 2

Criteria for material selection for QD therapeutic against MDR superbugs. a) Conduction band (red) and valence band (blue) positions for select semiconductors in bulk, according to references cited in reviews herein [83, 84]. Band edge positions shown in relation to thresholds for superoxide (green) and hydroxyl radical (red) generation. Many of these materials only absorb ultraviolet light or are unable to generate superoxide. b) By applying rational constraints to this list of materials, we can narrow this (non-exhaustive) list of candidates. c) These candidates could potentially generate therapeutic superoxide using visible or NIR light, which penetrates deeper through tissue than UV (d), reproduced with permission from the American Chemical Society³⁷