Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have received attention because of their physicochemical properties, low cost, ease of synthesis, and they are environmentally friendly. They have also found uses in biomedical applications due to their antibacterial properties. ZnO NPs, when capped with natural products from plant extracts with known antibacterial properties, are hypothesized to cause bacterial stasis and have enhanced bactericidal performance. This project focuses on synthesizing and characterizing natural product capped ZnO NPs and determining how the incorporation of the natural products alters the physicochemical properties of ZnO. ZnO NPs were synthesized using zinc nitrate and aqueous extracts from garlic (Allium sativum), goldenseal root (Hydrastis canadensis), lavender (Lavandula x intermedia), and plantain leaf (Plantago major). The NPs were prepared by two methods. The first was by alkali precipitation from an aqueous solution at 65oC and the second by evaporation followed by calcination at 400oC. The NPs were characterized by FT-IR, TGA, XRD, SEM, and CHN elemental analysis. FT-IR was used to demonstrate that organic functional groups present in the extracts were incorporated into the nanomaterials. The materials were used to catalyze the decolorization of aqueous solutions of malachite green dye under UVA irradiation to assess how the incorporation of the plant extract modifies the ZnO’s chemical reactivity. The observed first-order rate constants for the dye decolorization were determined for each ZnO NP, assuming a first-order kinetics model. The materials were tested against a panel of bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus, to determine IC50s and MICs.

Enhancement of ZnO antibacterial properties by incorporating plant extracts

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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