One-pot synthesis of mesoporous silica-supported nano-metal oxide composites with enhanced antibacterial properties

Bacterial infections are recognized as a serious health issue in the world. Nano-zinc oxide (nano-ZnO) is considered as an antibacterial material because of its broad-spectrum bactericidal properties. In this work, a one-pot method to prepare nano-metal oxide-loaded composites based on polydopamine (PDA)-coated mesoporous silica (MSN/ZnO, MSN/CuZnO, MSN-C/ZnO, MSN-C/CuZnO) with good antibacterial properties was proposed. The results showed that the morphology of the composites had a regular spherical shape with an average particle size of 100 nm. And nano-metal oxides were formed in the pore of mesoporous silica with a diameter of 5 nm. Strikingly, the inhibition zone diameters towards E. coli of MSN-C/ZnO and MSN-C/CuZnO showed better antibacterial performance, were 35.40 +/- 0.01 mm and 33.20 +/- 0.01 mm, respectively. Besides, it was found that, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of such nano-metal oxide-loaded composites were 0.625 mg/mL. Therefore, these mesoporous silica-supported nano-metal oxide composites can be used as favorable and effective antibacterial products for advanced and potential applications.

Automated summary

A one-pot method was proposed in this work to prepare polydopamine-coated mesoporous silica-supported nano-metal oxide composites with good antibacterial properties. The composites showed a regular spherical shape with nano-metal oxides formed in the pores of mesoporous silica. Among them, MSN-C/ZnO and MSN-C/CuZnO exhibited better antibacterial performance and lower minimal inhibitory concentration. Therefore, these composites have potential applications as effective antibacterial products in the medical field.