Green Chemistry for the Fabrication of MgO Nanoparticles in Mesoporous Matrix Obtained from Rice Straw and Study of its Spectroscopic and Antibacterial Properties

The fabrication and characterization of mesoporous material using rice straw ash as an alternative cheap silica source is reported. Rice straw, combusted at 500 ºC for the production of amorphous silica, has been used for the preparation of mesoporous material. Magnesium oxide nanoparticles were successfully synthesized in mesoporous matrix through a solid state reaction method. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM and TEM. Disk diffusion method and MIC were used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of nanoparticles on S. aureus and E. coli compared to standard commercial antibiotic disks. XRD results reveal diffraction peaks for each of the two compounds in the nanocomposite. The XRD studies show that the synthesized MgO nanoparticles have cubic structure. Transmission electron microscopy images showed small particles belong to magnesium oxide nanoparticles with maximum diameter 19 nm.