Recent Advances of Zinc-based Antimicrobial Materials

Zinc has been widely utilized as an antimicrobial material, often in the form of complexes or zinc oxide nanoparticles. The efficacy of zinc complexes are often due to the synergistic effect of both the zinc ions and the attached organic ligands. In contrast, the nanoparticle effect of ZnO, and the photocatalytic generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been postulated to be the effective mechanism of ZnO as a biocide. Recently, new forms of zinc-based biocidal materials have been reported with distinct antimicrobial mechanisms. This minireview summarizes these recent advances, including zinc-based nano-arrays, MOF-based ROS release and zinc composites that can self-generate ROS.