Zn-containing Wollastonite with Well-defined Microstructural and Good Antifungal Activity

Abstract

Antimicrobial and antifungal materials we prepared from Zn-containing wollastonite set by wet precipitation method. Wollastonite, hardystonite, willemite and very little quartz were developed after sintering at 1100°C/2h, however, the Raman spectroscopy approved the later phases by their characteristic Raman shift bands. The microstructure exhibited accumulated rounded to irregular clusters containing nano-size particles (< 500nm) developed in all sintered samples. Zeta potential; exposed negative values for all powdered samples from − 2.64 to -17.6 mV (i.e., for Zn-free to highest Zn-containing samples). It can be easily noticed that the lowest ZnO-content exhibits a varied range of antibacterial activities in contrast to Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive (S. aureus & B. subtilis). Correspondingly, the CZS5 exhibits good inhibitory effect against the filamentous pathogenic fungus (A. niger).