Remarkably improvement in antibacterial activity by synergistic effect in n-Cu@T-ZnO nanocomposites

Abstract In view of its essential activity for antimicrobial, tetra-needle like ZnO (T-ZnO) were used as the carrier for in situ synthesizing well-dispersed nano-copper (n-Cu), to prepare a composite antibacterial agent for improving the activity and broadening the spectrum. The obtained hybridizing materials were characterized by electron microscopic observations, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analyses, and the results showed that the n-Cu with an average size of 15 nm were uniformly loaded on surfaces of T-ZnO. The existence of special interactions between copper and T-ZnO was also approved. The as-prepared hybrids displayed much higher activity as compared to the pristine T-ZnO, the n-Cu alone, and even the identical copper amount of CuCl 2 solution against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus . Based on systematically characterization and analyses, we attributed it to the synergistic effect resulted from the structural hybridization between the single-crystalline T-ZnO and n-Cu which lead to the increase of copper ions release and H 2 O 2 generation. This discovery can be developed an effective approach towards a new kind of wide spectrum and high efficiency antibacterial materials.