• • Photothermal conversion efficiency reaches 29.4%, enabling rapid NIR-induced hyperthermia (typically >50°C) that ablates bacteria; this threshold is critical for clinical translation because it minimizes thermal damage to surrounding tissue while achieving >99% bacterial reduction in vitro.
• • Under NIR irradiation, antibacterial effectiveness increases 1.7-fold for both S. aureus and E. coli, boosting inhibition from 57–60% to >97%; this demonstrates that photothermal activation can overcome the intrinsic resistance of MDR strains without additional antibiotics.
• • ROS scavenging capability approaches 100% across all tested models, mitigating oxidative stress that impairs wound healing; this antioxidant function is essential for chronic wounds where elevated ROS delays tissue regeneration.
• • Hemolysis assays show negligible red blood cell lysis (<5%) and high cell viability at relevant concentrations, confirming biocompatibility; this addresses the cytotoxicity bottleneck of bare silver nanoparticles, which often exhibit dose-dependent toxicity.