Research on the antibacterial effect of zinc oxide-based tungstate nanocomposites against Escherichia coli

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the antibacterial effect of zinc oxide-based tungstate nanocomposites on Escherichia coli and some other potential future application values. Bacterial resistance has become a major challenge in the field of global public health. Developing new antibacterial materials is one of the key strategies to address this issue. In this study, different concentrations of FeWO4@ZnO nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method, and their physical structure and optical properties were characterized and tested by techniques such as ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The test results show that the composite material exhibits significant light absorption characteristics in the ultraviolet-visible light region, and the band gap values of the three samples are all between pure ZnO and tungstate, which confirms the formation of the heterojunction structure. The formation of the heterojunction structure can effectively promote the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, thereby enhancing the photocatalytic activity of the samples in this study. The antibacterial experiment shows that the samples of this experiment have a significant inhibitory effect on Escherichia coli, especially the antibacterial effect is more prominent under light conditions. Among them, sample FZ-3 completely inhibited bacterial growth within 120 minutes. Then, the antibacterial mechanism of the samples was analyzed. It was believed that under light conditions, the composite samples produced reactive oxygen species (ROS) through photocatalysis, which destroyed the structure of bacterial cells, while under dark conditions, the release of Zn2+ and W6+ ions interfered with the normal metabolism and growth of bacteria. With the increase of tungstate content, it was found that the antibacterial performance of the samples was also significantly improved, which indicates that the synergistic effect plays a key role in the antibacterial process.