Determining the Effect of Zno Nano Particles against Escherichia coli Strains

Abstract

An attempt was made to study antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles on Gram-negative bacteria, E. coli. By using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and ultraviolet (UV) analysis, zinc oxide nanoparticles were characterised. Different zinc oxide nanoparticle concentrations were used in the antimicrobial study, which was carried out using well diffusion assays and growth rate studies. Effect of nano particles on bacterial growth was determined by comparing growth curves of the ZnO treated and untreated bacterial cultures.

The results showed zinc oxide nanoparticles to be an effective bactericide. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the bactericidal action of these nano scale materials. The zinc oxide nanoparticles were discovered to have accumulated in the bacterial membrane while the treated E. coli cells displayed damages by the formation of "pits" in the bacterial cell wall. Such a membrane's morphology causes a marked increase in permeability, which kills the cell. DNA changes were detected using atomic force microscopy on bacterial DNA that had been exposed to nanoparticles. The presented strategy opens up wide applications in various fields like optical switches, shutters, waveguides, and optical filters and in biomedical applications. The adopted synthetic procedure is amenable to fine tune the properties of the particles produced by choosing the suitable constituents at molecular level.