Abstract
Background: The antibacterial activity of copper oxide nanoparticles is noticed to have good biocompatibility and it finds multiple biomedical applications, disinfections, catalyst etc. Therefore, synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles in a cost effective method and their application for understanding microbial activity towards various bacteria associated to living being including human has gained significant attention to the researchers.
Objective: The aim of the present investigation is to synthesize copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) with a cost effective method and its characterization though XRD, FTIR and FE-SEM for undersanding their size, morphology and moieties. The main purpose of the work is to understand the concentration dependent antibacterial effect of CuO NPs against Escherichia coli.
Method: Copper oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical precipitation method. The NPs were characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectrocopy (FTIR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) for the confirmation of the size and shape, and presence of different moieties and CuO of the synthesized NPs. The antimicrobial activity is performed against E-coli with different concentraction of CuO to test the nanotoxicity of CuO nanoparticles.
Results: The XRD pattern reveals the crystallite size of synthesized CuO as 14.48 nm. The FTIR result confirms the presence of C-H bending and NO3 - stretching, and peaks between 400-510 cm–1 represents the presence of Cu-O stretching. SEM showed the synthesized CuO NPs are round in shape and particles were found to be in the range of 80-100 nm. The antibacterial study of CuO against E. coli shows their enhanced activity in terms of zone of inhibition, with the increasing inhibition concentration.
Conclusion: The synthesis of CuO nanoparticles by chemical precipitation method is facile and costeffective, and also can produced NPs in large quantity. XRD, FTIR and FESEM characterizations shows the size and shape, and confirms the purities in synthesized NPs. The promising antibacterial activity of CuO vindicates its possible usefulness in various biomedical applications.
Keywords: CuO, nanotoxicity, XRD, FTIR, FE-SEM, antibacterial activity, E. coli.