Antibacterial and morphological studies of plant-mediated synthesized CuO nanoparticles using Azadirachta indica (neem) leaf extract

This paper deals with the synthesis of copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles by the plant-mediated method using copper acetate monohydrate and neem extract. The formation of nanoparticles was confirmed by UV-Visible spectral studies. P-XRD studies revealed that the average particle size of synthesized nanoparticles was 11.30 nm which was in good agreement with TEM results. Morphology of synthesized nanoparticles was determined by SEM which revealed that CuO nanoparticles were spherical and some were agglomerated in nature. The EDX spectrum of nanoparticles exhibited three signals one signal at 0.9 keV and other signals at ~8 keV which is due to Cu and another signal of oxygen appeared at 0.5 keV this indicated that nanoparticles of copper have been formed as copper oxide. The synthesized nanoparticles were screened for their antibacterial activity in vitro against gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by adopting the disk diffusion method. The results of antibacterial studies exhibited that CuO NPs were potential antibacterial agents.