Novel Strategy for One-Step Production of Attenuated Ag-Containing AgCu/ZnO Antibacterial-Antifungal Nanocomposite Particles

Abstract

Novel strategies have been developed to comply with Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations to provide the same performances for antibacterial and antifungal materials. The strategy for producing composite materials by attenuating the silver (Ag) content and a one-step production technique without minimizing the antibacterial and antifungal performance was developed. In this study, attenuated spherical Ag containing spherical AgCu/ZnO nanocomposite particles have been synthesized from an aqueous solution of silver nitrate (AgNO3), copper nitrate (Cu(NO3)2 · 3H2O), and zinc nitrate (Zn(NO3)2 · 7H2O) by a facile one-step ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and hydrogen reduction (USP-HR) method. Characterization of AgCu/ZnO nanocomposite particles was carried out by various techniques such as X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The structural analysis showed that AgCu/ZnO nanocomposites were composed of face-centered cubic Ag, face-centered cubic Cu, and hexagonal ZnO phases. Antibacterial and antifungal properties of nanocomposite particles against Escherichia coli and Aspergillus niger were investigated by agar medium and broth medium methods. The obtained results indicate that produced nanocomposite particles possess antibacterial and antifungal properties (100%). The attenuated Ag in the AgCu/ZnO nanocomposite particles has the usage potential in different areas of the textile industry. In particular, the research on utilizing this nanocomposite in hand-made fiber production as an additive is of very high interest.