Insight into the Mechanism of Antibacterial Activity of ZnO: Surface Defects Mediated Reactive Oxygen Species Even in the Dark

A systematic and complete antibacterial study on well-designed and well-characterized microparticle (micro), nanoparticle (nano), and capped nano ZnO has been carried out in both dark and light conditions with the objective of arriving at the mechanism of the antibacterial activity of ZnO, particularly in the dark. The present systematic study has conclusively proved that reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as (•)OH, (•)O2(-), and H2O2 are significantly produced from aqueous suspension of ZnO even in the dark and are mainly responsible for the activity in the dark up to 17%, rather than Zn(2+) ion leaching as proposed earlier. This work further confirms that surface defects play a major role in the production…

• UG
  University Grants Commission
• VU
  VIT University