L-cysteine modified ZnO: Small change while great progress

ZnO as an important nanomaterial have been widely used in biomedical fields, however, ZnO has noticeable damage to the organs such as lung and liver, from the long run, its biosafety still needs improvements. In this work, we proposed a simple method to modify the surface of ZnO with l-cysteine. The basic characterizations showed that the surface modification can greatly affect its self-assembly and optical properties. Furthermore, the surface modification can greatly improve its biocompatibility and without change of its bulk antibacterial properties. Moreover, compared with ZnO, the l-cysteine modified ZnO showed much better biosafety in the in vivo test, demonstrating that the modified ZnO may have perspective applications in biomedical fields.