Synthesis and characterization of ZnO/palygorskite

This paper reports the synthesis of ZnO/palygorskite (ZnO/PGS) composites prepared by coating palygorskite (PGS) fibres with ZnO nanoparticles The samples were characterized by thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) X-ray diffraction (XRD) Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) scanning electron microscopy (SEM) transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) The PGS fibres were uniformly coated with well-crystallized ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of 15 nm The composites still retained the fibre-like morphology of PGS and showed excellent antibacterial activity against E cob A possible antibacterial mechanism was proposed (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved