Antibacterial Shoe Insole-Coated CuO-ZnO Nanocomposite Synthesized by the Sol-Gel Technique

In this study, CuO-ZnO composite was synthesized via the sol-gel method using oxalic acid to form the medium complex and its applications in antibacterial have been conducted with B. cereus, E. coli, S. aureus, Salmonella, and P. aeruginosa. Then, nanopowder of CuO-ZnO was coated on shoe insoles and their antibacterial effect with S. aureus was tested. The nanocomposite products were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, and UV-Vis. The results showed that the CuO-ZnO composite has the average particle size in a range of 20-50 nm, the point of zero charge of 7.8, and the bandgap of 1.7 eV. XPS result shows the composite structure with Cu2+ in the product. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of CuO-ZnO nanocomposite was 0.313 mg·mL-1 for S. aureus and Samonella, 0.625 mg·mL-1 for E. coli, and 5 mg·mL-1 for B. cereus and P. aeruginosa. The shoe insoles coated with 0.35 wt.% of CuO-ZnO nanocomposite also had high antibacterial activity against S. aureus, and this antibacterial nanocomposite was implanted durably on the surface of the shoe insoles.