STUDY OF THE ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF COMPOSITES STEVENSITE / ZnO

During the past few years there has been a remarkable growth of research activities exploring properties and biomedical applications of nano-sized materials. Size, shape, size distribution, morphology, surface functionalization and stability of nanomaterials have an influence on resulting biological and other effects of nanomaterials. Due to the unnecessary overuse of antibiotics in the second half of the 20th century, mankind must face the incidence increase of resistant and/or multiresistant bacterial strains, which may significantly decrease the efficiency of current medical treatment. Nanoparticles or nanomaterials could potentially represent the new medicines because no acquired bacterial resistance after application of nanomaterials has been observed yet. In this study, ZnO nanoparticles(NPs) were synthesized by the reaction between zinc chloride and sodium hydroxide. Stevensite/ZnO nanocomposite (SEZN) was thus prepared by addition of the aqueous mixture of zinc chloride and sodium hydroxide solutions into the aqueous suspension of stevensite. The prepared samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction. The modification of the standard microdilution method was used for the evaluation of the antibacterial activity of ZnO NPs and composite stevensite/ZnO. Antibacterial assay using common human pathogen bacterial strains showed that ZnO NPs and SEZN composite have antibacterial potency.