• Vasile, Bogdan Stefan
• Ilie, Cornelia-Ioana
• Ficai, Anton
• Andronescu, Ecaterina
• Trușcă, Roxana-Doina
• Ficai, Denisa
• Spoiala, Angela
• Ditu, Lia-Mara
• Oprea, Ovidiu
• Surdu, Vasile-Adrian

Abstract

<jats:p>In this study, zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized through a simple co-precipitation method starting from zinc acetate dihydrate and sodium hydroxide as reactants. The as-obtained ZnO nanoparticles were morphologically and structurally characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), photocatalytic activity, and by determining the antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The XRD pattern of the zinc oxide nanoparticles showed the wurtzite hexagonal structure, and its purity highlighted that the crystallinity correlated with the presence of a single product, zinc oxide. The ZnO nanoparticles have an average crystallite size of 19 ± 11 nm, which is in accordance with the microscopic data. ZnO nanoparticles were tested against methyl orange, used as a model pollutant, and it was found that they exhibit strong photocatalytic activity against this dye. The antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles was tested against Gram-negative and Gram-positive strains (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans). The strongest activity was found against Gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus).</jats:p>

Topics

• nanoparticle
• impedance spectroscopy
• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• zinc
• Sodium
• transmission electron microscopy
• precipitation
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
• crystallinity