Ag-Decorated Iron Oxides-Silica Magnetic Nanocomposites with Antimicrobial and Photocatalytic Activity
Viorica Muşat,
Lenuța Crintea (Căpăţână),
Elena-Maria Anghel,
Nicolae Stănică,
Irina Atkinson,
Daniela Cristina Culiţă,
Liliana Baroiu,
Nicolae Țigău,
Alina Cantaragiu Ceoromila,
Andreea-Veronica Botezatu (Dediu),
Oana Carp
Affiliations
Viorica Muşat
Laboratory of Chemical Nanotechnologies-Center of Nanostructures and Functional Materials LNC-CNMF, Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, 47 Domnească Street, 800008 Galati, Romania
Lenuța Crintea (Căpăţână)
Laboratory of Chemical Nanotechnologies-Center of Nanostructures and Functional Materials LNC-CNMF, Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, 47 Domnească Street, 800008 Galati, Romania
Elena-Maria Anghel
Institute of Physical Chemistry “Ilie Murgulescu” of Romanian Academy, Spl. Independenţei 202, 060021 Bucharest, Romania
Nicolae Stănică
Institute of Physical Chemistry “Ilie Murgulescu” of Romanian Academy, Spl. Independenţei 202, 060021 Bucharest, Romania
Irina Atkinson
Institute of Physical Chemistry “Ilie Murgulescu” of Romanian Academy, Spl. Independenţei 202, 060021 Bucharest, Romania
Daniela Cristina Culiţă
Institute of Physical Chemistry “Ilie Murgulescu” of Romanian Academy, Spl. Independenţei 202, 060021 Bucharest, Romania
Liliana Baroiu
Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, 47 Domnească Street, 800008 Galati, Romania
Nicolae Țigău
Department of Physical-Chemistry and Environment, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, 47 Domnească Street, 800008 Galati, Romania
Alina Cantaragiu Ceoromila
Department of Applied Sciences, Cross-Border Faculty, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, 47 Domnească Street, 800008 Galati, Romania
Andreea-Veronica Botezatu (Dediu)
Department of Physical-Chemistry and Environment, “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galati, 47 Domnească Street, 800008 Galati, Romania
Oana Carp
Institute of Physical Chemistry “Ilie Murgulescu” of Romanian Academy, Spl. Independenţei 202, 060021 Bucharest, Romania
Nanotechnology offers unlimited possibilities for creating effective hybrid materials, which combine functional performance in environment depollution and antimicrobial defense with a lack of toxicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and natural availability. This paper presents the silver effect on photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of double-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs), Fe3O4@SiO2/ZnO-Ag. The structural, morphological, and textural information of the, core–shell iron oxides-based superparamagnetic nanoparticles (IOMNPs) decorated with 5% Ag by ultrasound-assisted synthesis were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller physisorption measurements. Although two synthesis temperatures of 95 and 80 °C were used for the co-precipitated iron oxide cores, the XRD patterns revealed the formation of a single magnetite, Fe3O4, phase. The sorption–photocatalytic activities under dark and UV irradiation encountered a maximum removal efficiency of the MB (90.47%) for the Fe3O4@SiO2/ZnO-Ag sample with iron oxide core obtained at 80 °C. The rate constant for the second-order kinetics was 0.0711 min−1 for 2 h, and the correlation coefficient R2 closed to unity. Two samples with Ag-decorated hybrid SiO2/ZnO shell and hierarchically interconnected porous structure with large surface area (328.8 and 342.5 m2g−1) exhibited the best disk diffusion antimicrobial activity against four microorganisms, especially gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus.
