Chemical Mediated Synthesis of Polyaniline/Tungstenoxide (PANI/WO3) Nanocomposites and Their Antibacterial Activity Against Clinical Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract

Polyaniline and tungsten oxide (PANI/WO3)-doped nanocomposites were synthesised by in situ chemical oxidation technique using different weight percentage of WO3 (10%, 30% and 50%), and the polymerization of PANI was carried out by using ammonium persulphate as an oxidising agent. These nanocomposites are characterized by physical methods, viz., Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The X-ray pattern confirmed that the formation of polyaniline and SEM micrographs exhibited agglomeration and showed that WO3 particles have a strong effect on the morphology of composites with average grain sizes of 10–20 nm. FTIR spectra revealed the strong bonding between PANI and WO3 particles. Further, these nanocomposites doped with 10% (P1), 30% (P3) and 50% (P5) of WO3 were tested for their antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria, viz., Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhimurium. Results revealed that these nanocomposites had shown potential antibacterial activity against all the tested pathogenic strains which was confirmed by clear zone of inhibition.