Abstract
The work investigates the role of interfacial potential in defining antimicrobial propensity of ZnO nanoparticle (ZnONP) against different Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. ZnONPs with positive and negative surface potential are tested against different bacteria with varying surface potentials, ranging −14.7 to −23.6 mV. Chemically synthesized ZnONPs with positive surface potential show very high antimicrobial propensity with minimum inhibitory concentration of 50 and 100 μg/mL for Gram negative and positive bacterium, respectively. On other hand, ZnONPs of the same size but with negative surface potential show insignificant antimicrobial propensity against the studied bacteria. Unlike the positively charged nanoparticles, neither Zn2+ ion nor negatively charged ZnONP shows any significant inhibition in growth or morphology of the bacterium. Potential neutralization and colony forming unit studies together proved adverse effect of the resultant nano-bacterial interfacial potential on bacterial viability. Thus, ZnONP with positive surface potential upon interaction with negative surface potential of bacterial membrane enhances production of the reactive oxygen species and exerts mechanical stress on the membrane, resulting in the membrane depolarization. Our results show that the antimicrobial propensity of metal oxide nanoparticle mainly depends upon the interfacial potential, the potential resulting upon interaction of nanoparticle surface with bacterial membrane.
Highlights
The work investigates the role of interfacial potential in defining antimicrobial propensity of ZnO nanoparticle (ZnONP) against different Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria
Our results show that the antimicrobial propensity of metal oxide nanoparticle mainly depends upon the interfacial potential, the potential resulting upon interaction of nanoparticle surface with bacterial membrane
In order to understand the role of interfacial potential on antimicrobial propensity, we investigated antimicrobial propensity of ZnONPs having positive and negative surface potentials against three randomly chosen Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria
Summary
The work investigates the role of interfacial potential in defining antimicrobial propensity of ZnO nanoparticle (ZnONP) against different Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. ZnONP with positive surface potential upon interaction with negative surface potential of bacterial membrane enhances production of the reactive oxygen species and exerts mechanical stress on the membrane, resulting in the membrane depolarization. Our results show that the antimicrobial propensity of metal oxide nanoparticle mainly depends upon the interfacial potential, the potential resulting upon interaction of nanoparticle surface with bacterial membrane. In order to understand the role of interfacial potential on antimicrobial propensity, we investigated antimicrobial propensity of ZnONPs having positive and negative surface potentials against three randomly chosen Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The antibacterial activity of ZnONP against different bacterial strains is well established[7,16,17], to best of our knowledge, the role of interaction profile at the interface in antimicrobial propensity of ZnONP has not been reported till date
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