Abstract
Antimicrobial materials are widely used for inhibition of microorganisms in the environment. It has been established that bacterial growth can be restrained by silver nanoparticles. Combining these with other antimicrobial agents, such as ZnO, may increase the antimicrobial activity and the use of carrier substrate makes the material easier to handle. In the paper, we present an antimicrobial nanocomposite based on silver nanoparticles nucleated in general silicate nanostructure ZnO·mSiO2. First, we prepared the silicate fine net nanostructure ZnO·mSiO2 with zinc content up to 30 wt% by precipitation of sodium water glass in zinc acetate solution. Silver nanoparticles were then formed within the material by photoreduction of AgNO3 on photoactive ZnO. This resulted into an Ag-ZnO·mSiO2 composite with silica gel-like morphology and the specific surface area of 250 m2/g. The composite, alongside with pure AgNO3 and clear ZnO·mSiO2, were successfully tested for antimicrobial activity on both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains and yeast Candida albicans. With respect to the silver content, the minimal inhibition concentration of Ag-ZnO·mSiO2 was worse than AgNO3 only for gram-negative strains. Moreover, we found a positive synergistic antimicrobial effect between Ag and Zn agents. These properties create an efficient and easily applicable antimicrobial material in the form of powder.
Highlights
Microorganisms play an indispensable positive role in our environment [1,2], but there are situations where they can endanger lives and antibiotics and antifungals have been invented
It has been shown that silver destabilizes the bacterial membrane and increases its permeability, inactivates respiratory enzymes and proteins responsible for DNA replication, and disrupts ion transport [6,7,8,9,10]
We present a preparation of Ag-ZnO silicate composite with high specific surface area and evaluation of its antimicrobial activity against four bacterial strains and one fungus
Summary
Microorganisms play an indispensable positive role in our environment [1,2], but there are situations where they can endanger lives and antibiotics and antifungals have been invented. The well-known silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with their antimicrobial properties became more and more popular again [4], as the silver had a far lower tendency to induce resistance than some conventional antibiotics [5]. Silver indiscriminately inhibits protein function, it exhibits limited toxicity to mammalian cells [11]. Silver is broadly used to prevent the growth of microbes on surfaces and within materials like in bacteriostatic and algaecide water filters [12] and in medical fields such as wound dressing materials, implants, breath masks, in sterilization of medical devices and in antimicrobial coatings [13,14,15,16]
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