Antifungal effects of ZnO-TiO 2 /Au nanostructures on Aspergillus flavus

The aim of the present study was to synthesize ZnO-TiO2/Au (Zn/Ti weight ratio of 1/1, the concentration of gold of 5–15 wt%) nanostructures using zinc acetate, titanium isopropoxide, and hydrogen tetra chloroauric through the sol-gel method. Physicochemical in vitro antifungal properties along with the morphological characterization are investigated via MIC, MFC, and ROS tests. All synthesized nanoparticles showed that A. flavus growth inhibition of ZnO-TiO2/Au (MIC = 0.625 μg/ml) showed higher antifungal activity against A. flavus at 15 wt% of Au than ZnO-TiO2 nanostructures (MIC = 78 μg/ml). Based on our findings, all of ZnO-TiO2/Au samples showed higher ROS production, which led to the induction of oxidative stress which is the reason of higher fungicide effect of Au-containing samples. In conclusion, the obtained Au-doped samples with enhanced chemical reactivity have a great potential for antifungal properties. Therefore, this work indicated ZnO-TiO2/Au has good potential with excellent clinical applications.