STUDY OF THE ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CERIUM DOPED TiO2 PHOTOCATALYSTS

Rising from the keen request for promising materials to protect human health and environment and even responding to solar light, TiO2 was doped with cerium in our work and its antibacterial activity against bacterial strains Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli was explored on artificial as well as natural daylight. Cerium doped TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared via sol-gel process controlled within the reverse micelles of nonionic surfactant Triton X-114 in cyclohexane and calcination. The textural, structural and optical properties of photocatalysts were characterized by several complementary investigation techniques such as nitrogen physisorption at 77 K, powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Standard microdilution test using the human pathogenic bacterial strain Staphylococcus aureus was used. Pure TiO2 and the samples with 20 and 30 mol.% of cerium content exhibited strong antibacterial activity after two days of exposure under artificial daylight simulated by proper lamp. The lowest value of achieved minimum inhibitory concentration was 0.041 mu g/mL. Therefore, these materials may be promising for potential applications in disinfection media or modification of surfaces e.g. in human or veterinary medicine.