Synthesis and Characterization of CuO nanoparticles in porous clay heterostructure and study of its antibacterial properties

This study reports on the preparation and characterization of porous clay heterostructure (PCH) as a high-surface area support for CuO nanoparticles based antibacterial activity for Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. CuO nanoparticles were incorporated in PCH by thermal decomposition method and characterized by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements (BET) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), The TEM results showed that nanoparticles are nearly spherical and particles size in the range of less than 10 nm. The powder X-ray diffraction indicated that PCH contained both MMT clay and MCM-41 and have located in the clay interlayers speaces. The diffuse reflectance spectra demonstrated the presence of CuO, Cu2O and Cu nanoparticles in PCH. The nanocomposite (CuO-PCH) was used for antibacterial testing. The antibacterial activity of CuO-PCH nanocomposite was tested against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The nanocomposite showed efficient bacterial effect against Gram-positive bacteria. The mechanism of antibacterial activity of CuO-PCH nanocomposite was discussed.