Base-Free Green Synthesis of Copper(Ii) Oxide Nanoparticles Using Highly Cross-Linked Poly(Curcumin) Nanospheres: Synergistically Improved Antimicrobial Activity Publisher



Farkhonde Masoule S^{1, 2} ; Pourhajibagher M³ ; Safari J² ; Khoobi M^{1, 4}
Source: Research on Chemical Intermediates Published:2019

Abstract

Antimicrobial activity of metal containing formulas has drawn attention and been widely investigated. In this research, CuO/hc-pCUR nanocomposite composed of copper(II) oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) and highly cross-linked poly(curcumin) nanospheres (hc-pCUR-NS) was easily prepared via in situ base-free precipitation and evaluated as an antimicrobial agent. Copper was bound to hc-pCUR-NS using the ability of the β-diketone moiety of CUR to chelate metal ions. CuO/hc-pCUR nanocomposite was fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and zeta potential analysis. The size of the negatively charged spherical nanocomposites was about 246 nm bearing small spherical CuO NPs (~ 34 nm). Comparative antimicrobial assays were performed against both Gram-positive (Enterococcus faecalis) and Gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. Interestingly, hc-pCUR-NS showed more antimicrobial activity than free CUR against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and addition of copper nanoparticles significantly improved the inhibitory effect of hc-pCUR-NS. All samples showed more antimicrobial activity against Gram positives compared with Gram negatives. These noticeable outcomes encouraged us to introduce CuO/hc-pCUR nanocomposites as promising antimicrobial agents for further study. © 2019, Springer Nature B.V.