The influence of H2O2 on the antibacterial activity of ZnO

Abstract

The size of microorganisms usually ranges from hundreds of nanometers to tens of micrometers. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO–NP) belongs to bio-safe material. And its antibacterial activity has attracted extensive attention because of various properties such as cost-effective benefits, UV-blocking properties and photooxidization. In this study, the effects of H2O2 on the antibacterial activity of zinc oxide were explored by using H2O2 as an auxiliary agent in the synthesis reaction of zinc oxide. The synthesis reaction of ZnO–NP was developed with H2O2 or without H2O2 treatment. And our results showed that zinc oxide with H2O2 treatment demonstrated the decreased antibacterial activity against both S. a and E. coli. when compared to that of zinc oxide without H2O2 treatment, which may be attributed to the observations: (1) the analysis of photocatalytic activity indicated that zinc oxide without H2O2 treatment generated more H2O2, and release more Zn2+ iron from ZnO than that of zinc oxide with H2O2 treatment; (2) the comparison of ZnO–NP morphology indicated that H2O2 treatment changed ZnO–NP from spherical-like microstructure to rod-like nanostructure when zinc oxide with H2O2 treatment was synthesized. These results support additional evidence for us to better understand the antibacterial mechanism of zinc oxide with or without H2O2 treatment, and offer a clue for us to develop zinc oxide with new properties for a wide range of applications by adding an auxiliary agent in the synthesis reaction of ZnO–NP.