Bactericidal properties of ZnO-SnO2 nanocomposites prepared by polymer-salt method

Abstract This work describes the study of the synthesis and characterization of bactericidal ZnO-SnO2 nanocomposites prepared by polymer-salt method. The structure and morphology of prepared materials were studied by XRD and SEM analysis. Prepared ZnO-SnO2 nanocomposites demonstrate the ability to generate singlet oxygen under external irradiation and high antibacterial activity against both gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 209P) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922) bacteria. Antibacterial effect increases significantly with the growth of SnO2 addition content up to 9–12 mol% content that is related to the decrease of ZnO nanocrystals sizes and the corresponding increase of materials specific surface areas.