Optimized Synthesis of Biopolymer-Based Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Their Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

Owing to their unique properties, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have a broad range of exciting applications. However, the problem of nanoparticles aggregation remains challenging. So, biopolymers of polysaccharides can provide green and promising stabilizers as alternatives to the current toxic chemical stabilizers during ZnO NPs synthesis. The main idea in this investigation is to tune ZnO NPs with an appropriate texture, shape, and size for antibacterial application. So, this work compares the use of three different eco-friendly stabilizers namely starch, carboxymethyl cellulose, and hydroxyethyl cellulose as alternatives capping agents in the fabrication of ZnO NPs at various times. The optimized ZnO NPs sample was obtained using starch as the optimum stabilizer at reaction conditions of 0.5 h, room temperature (25 °C), 1:2 )MZn:MNaOH) ratio and 1% (w/v) starch concentration. The optical, texture, and structural properties of prepared ZnO NPs were characterized by UV-Vis, DLS, zeta potential, FT-IR, and TEM techniques. ZnO NPs showed a mean zeta potential of −21.6 mV, explaining that they are moderately stable. The analysis by TEM confirmed that the NPs were spherical and have an average size of 23 nm. The antibacterial properties of ZnO NPs against Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus epidermidis) and Gramnegative (Enterobacter cloacae and Escherichia coli) bacteria were evaluated based on the zone of inhibition (ZOI) values expressed in mm. The results showed promising performances for their antibacterial activity against the tested bacteria which indicated a strong antibacterial activity of ZnO NPs against B. subtilis, S. epidermidis, and E. cloacae with ZOI values of 17, 14 and 16 mm, respectively, and it showed moderate activity against E. coli (ZOI = 10 mm). The synthesis of biopolymer stabilized ZnO NPs by this approach could be eco-friendly and cost-effective and synthesized ZnO NPs can serve as promising antibacterial agents.

Study of the antibacterial effects of the starch-based zinc oxide nanoparticles on methicillin resistance <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> isolates from different clinical specimens of patients from Basrah, Iraq

“…The UV-Vis analysis showed that three concentrations of starch-based ZnO-NPs (0.1 M, 0.05 M, 0.02 M) exhibited a strong absorption band at 360 nm which was characteristic of the ZnO-NPs. This observation was in good parallel with the previous studies from Egypt [13] , Romania [14] , and Jordan [30] which showed the absorption peaks of ZnO-NPs below 400 nm. The shape, size, and method of fabrication of ZnO-NPs are all factors influencing the absorption peak.…”

“…The previously described method was used to prepare the ZnO-NPs with minor modifications [13] . We examined different parameters to obtain an optimum synthesized ZnO-NPs.…”

“…The produced nanoparticles were washed three times with distilled water to remove the byproducts and the excessive starch particles that were bound to the formed nanoparticles. Finally, the nanoparticles were dried at 60–80 °C for overnight [13] .…”

“…This device detected the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak of the prepared starch-based ZnO-NPs in the scanning range of 200–800 nm. An absorbance test was conducted on 1 cm quartz cells using starch-based ZnO-NPs dispersed in deionized water [13] .…”

Construction, molecular docking simulation and evaluation of electrochemical properties of polymeric nanospheres comprising novel synthesized monomer via green microemulsion polymerization

“…22 In particular, the production of semitransparent, homogenous, and thermodynamically stable polymeric nanospheres in latex is made simple, rapid, and affordable by using microemulsion polymerization. Additionally, microemulsion technique was applied in numerous application that encompass metallic nanoparticles, 23 quantum dots, 24 polymeric nanoparticles, 25 mesoporous silica nanoparticles, 26 solid liquid nanoparticles 27 and liquid structure lipid carriers 28,29 as demonstrated in Figure 1.…”