Temperature effect on CuO nanoparticles: antimicrobial activity towards bacterial strains

Abstract Semiconductor metal oxides are under investigation in recent years towards biological applications due to their high stability. Especially CuO nanoparticles have gained attention due to their low cost and easy synthesis. Herein, the effect of calcinations temperature on the CuO nanospindles prepared by reflux method were investigated. The XRD results reveal a monoclinic structured CuO formation. The morphology analyzed with SEM projected a decrease in particle size at higher calcinations temperature of 800 °C. The optical bandgap calculated from Tauc plot also showed an increase in bandgap value at higher calcinations temperature. The antibacterial property of the sample with more surface to volume ratio has been studied towards a gram-positive and a gram-negative bacterial strain. The prepared CuO nanoparticles showed better reactivity towards the gram-negative E.coli when compared to that of gram-positive staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, the antibacterial results reveal that the sensitivity towards bacterial strains is proportional to the concentration of the CuO sample were reported in detail.