Yellow responsive material based modification to reduce earphone induced Infection and hearing loss

Today, earphones have almost been owned by everyone. However, wearing earphones for a long time can cause two serious problems: (1) irreversible damage to hearing; (2) rapid proliferation of bacteria in the ear canal. Herein, an earphone modification strategy is developed for the first time, to reduce hearing loss and inhibit bacteria simultaneously. This earphone is equipped with a high purity yellow light (YL) light-emitting diode chip developed by our university. Then, the surface of the earphone is loaded with porous zinc oxide and silver nanoparticle composite material (ZnO-Ag) that can respond to the YL. Under the excitation of YL, the porous ZnO-Ag can release reactive oxygen species with strong antibacterial activity. More importantly, we discover that YL can reduce the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-3, the secretion of inflammatory factors, and apoptosis in the cochlea, thereby effectively reduce hearing loss.