Synthesis and characterization of ZnO:CuO nanoparticles and evaluation of their antibacterial activity

This study aims to investigate the structural characteristics and biological activities of combined ZnO:CuO Nanoparticles (NPs).

ZnO:CuO NPs mixture is synthesized using a simple sol-gel method. The crystalline structure of the resulting NPs is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and their morphology is examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).

XRD patterns of the prepared ZnO NPs disclose the diffraction peaks of 2Ɵ ~ 36.38°, 31.90°, 34.55°, 56.71°, 62.97°, 68.05°. XRD results signpost that the average crystal size of pure ZnO is 48 nm, and that the Scherrer method-calculated average crystal size grew to 55 nm at a mixing ratio of 25% CuO. Moreover, XRD data demonstrate that increasing CuO percentage to 50% and 75% result in decreasing average crystal size to 46 nm and 25 nm, respectively. The particle size distribution, spherical and semi-spherical morphologies, and heterogeneous sizes of crystalline NPs have been verified by FESEM pictures. The mixture of 75% ZnO + 25% CuO displays the maximum antibacterial activity with a standard mean deviation of 13.6 ± 0.57 to 20.6 ± 0.57 µg/mL against P.aeruginosa.

These verdicts show that ZnO:CuO NPs have antibacterial action and can thus advance the specific type of activity found in antibiotics.