Preparation, Characterization and Comparative Study of Antibacterial Properties of Ag-TiO2 and ZnO-TiO2 Nanoparticles

With various features such as strong oxidation, biocompatibility and acceptable mechanical properties, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is among the materials that are frequently used in biological and medical applications. Nowadays, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of titanium dioxide and practical use of this material, doping it with elements such as silver, zinc and iron has been favored. In this study, Ag-TiO2 and ZnO-TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by the sol–gel method and were evaluated and compared.In order to identify the present phases in the structure, X-ray diffraction analysis was used. Also for the characterization of the nanoparticles, Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Zeta Potential were used. Inaddition, the antibacterial activities of nanoparticles were investigated and compared. The results showed that sol-gel method could successfully produce nanoparticles of Ag-TiO2 and ZnO-TiO2 with the expected combination. The investigation of antibacterial properties of these particles revealed that at lower inhibitory concentrations, Ag-TiO2 composition has a higher antibacterial activity than ZnO-TiO2 one.