Activity of Engineered Nano-Semiconductor Oxides against Gram Positive and Gram Negative Bacteria

Abstract

Antibacterial activities of semiconductor oxides such as ZnO and TiO2 have induced research on the design of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) for the last few decades. We had synthesized modified ZnO and TiO2 using rare earth salts and analyzed their antibacterial activities against Bacillus brevis. (Gram positive) and E. coli (Gram negative) by modified well diffusion method. Among the seventeen nanoparticles studied, Ag-TiO2 showed highest antibacterial activity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. Antibacterial activities of Ni-Ag-TiO2, ZnO, Eu2O3-ZnO, DyMoO4-ZnO, GdMoO4-ZnO, DyVO4-ZnO, GdVO4-ZnO and HoVO4-ZnO were found to be significant. From the microbial plating experiments it was shown that the synthesized nano materials show a wide spectrum of antibacterial activities performed against Bacillus brevis, and E. coli. In this study we help to understand the influence of the engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) against microbes, as these ENPs finds wide applications in medicine, water treatment, in food industry as anti-coating agents.