Antibiotic resistance is an emerging issue in healthcare; therefore, a strong push towards the use of inorganic antimicrobials is needed to combat resilient bacteria. Zinc oxide has been shown to be an effective antimicrobial, yet additional studies at optimizing and studying the morphology dependent properties are necessary to gain insight into the mechanism.  This study utilized chemical bath and hydrothermal synthesis to generate plate and rod-like morphologies of the ZnO. All synthesized products were identified by SEM and then the  antibacterial activity of the synthesized products were tested against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria in order to identify which morphology is more effective as an antimicrobial. Both morphologies demonstrated effectiveness as antimicrobial agents, yet plate-like ZnO appeared to give a slight advantage as being more effective.

Discoveries in the antimicrobial properties of ZnO plate and rod morphologies

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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