Synthesis of Tartaric Acid based Polymer Nanocomposite Incorporated with Copper Oxide Nanoparticles with Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

The copper oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using Brassaia actinophylla (B. actinophylla) flower extract by solution combustion method. The poly(tartaric acid-co-diethylene glycol-co-acrylic acid (TDA) hydrogel was prepared using tartaric acid (T), diethylene glycol (D) and acrylic acid (A). The synthesized CuO nanoparticles were introduced into TDA hydrogel and the polymer nanocomposite TDA-CuO was obtained. The UV-peak was observed at 270 nm for TDA-CuO nanocomposite and for TDA no peak found. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) peak obtained at 432 cm-1 confirmed the presence of CuO nanoparticles in the hydrogel. The nanoparticles size 25-35 nm was confirmed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the morphology was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The percentage of copper and oxygen was analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) spectrum where the percentage of copper is 2.4%. The thermal stability of TDA and TDA-CuO hydrogel was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The antibacterial activity was performed against two Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis and two Gram-negative Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia bacterial strains at various concentrations 25, 50, 75 and 100 μL by agar well diffusion method. The Gram-positive bacterial strains showed highest antibacterial activity than Gram-negative bacterial strain at highest concentration 100 μg/mL.