Abstract
Aqueous suspensions containing 4.45 × 10−5 − 1.25 × 10−3 M ZnO particles exhibit a strong antibacterial activity against E. coli under the dark conditions. The dominant mechanisms of such antibacterial behaviour are found to be either or both of chemical interactions between hydrogen peroxide and membrane proteins, and chemical interactions between other unknown chemical species generated due to the presence of ZnO particles with the lipid bilayer. The effect of direct physical interactions between nanoparticles and biological cells are found to play a relatively small role under the conditions of this study.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams LK, Lyon DY, Alvarez JJ (2006) Comparative eco-toxicity of nanoscale TiO2, SiO2, and ZnO water suspensions. Water Res 40:3527–3532
Axtell HC, Hartley SM, Sallavanti RA (2005) Multi-functional protective fibre and methods for use. United States Patent US2005026778
Ball P (2001) Roll-up for revolution. Nature 414:142–144
Belloc NC, Pun SH, Jensen GS, Davis ME (2003) Tranferrin targeted gene delivery. Bioconjug Chem 14:1122–1132
Brayner R, Ferrari-lliou R, Brivois N, Djediat S, Benedetti MF, Fievet F (2006) Toxicological impact studies based on Escherichia coli bacteria in ultrafine ZnO nanoparticles colloidal medium. Nano Lett 6:866–870
Clement NR, Gould JM (1981) Pyraine (8-hydroxy-1,3,6-pyrenetrisulfonate) as a probe of internal aqueous hydrogen ion concentration in phospholipids vesicles. Biochemistry 20:1534–1538
Damiano E, Bassilana M, Rigaud JL, Leblanc G (1984) Use of the pH sensitive fluorescence probe pyranine to monitor internal pH changes in Escherichia coli membrane vesicles. FEBS Lett 166:120–124
Donaldson K, Tran CL (2004) An introduction to the short term toxicology of respirable industrial fibers. Mutat Res 553:5–9
Donoldson K, Stone V, Gilmour PS, Brown DM, MacNee W (2000) Ultrafine particles: mechanisms of lung injury. Philos Trans R Soc Lond A 358:2741–2749
Dreher KL (2004) Health and environmental impact of nanotechnology: toxicological assessment of manufactured nanoparticles. Toxicol Sci 77:3–5
Fu G, Vary PS, Lin CT (2005) Anatase TiO2 nanocomposites for antimicrobial coating. J Phys Chem B 109:8889–8898
Hewitt CJ, Bellara ST, Andreani A, Nebe-von-Caron G, Mcfarlane CM (2001) An evaluation of the anti-bacterial action of ceramic powder slurries using multi-parameter flow cytometry. Biotechnol Lett 23:667–675
Jeng HA, Swanson J (2006) Toxicity of metal oxide nanoparticles in mammalian cells. J Environ Sci Health 41:2699–2711
Kano K, Fendler JH (1978) Pyranine as a sensitive pH probe for liposome interiors and surfaces. Biochinica et biophysica acta 509:289–299
Kong G, Braun RD, Dewhirt MW (2000) Hypothermia enables tumor-specific nanoparticle delivery: effect of nanoparticle size. Cancer Res 60:4440–4445
Lam CW, James JT, McCcluskey R, Hunt RL (2004) Pulmonary toxicity of single wall carbon nanotubes, in mice 7 and 90 days after intratracheal instillation. Toxicol Sci 77:126–134
Li XJ, Wang Y, Wang Y (2005) Photocatalytic and antiseptic far infrared fiber and its preparing method. Patent CN1587453
Makhluf S, Dror R, Nitzan Y, Abramovich Y, Jelinek R, Gedanken A (2005) Microwave-assisted synthesis of nanocrystalline MgO and its use s a bacteriocide. Adv Funct Mater 15:1708–1715
Mallin MA (2006) Wading in waste. Sci Am 294:53–59
Ozgur U, Alivov C, Liu C, Teke A, Reshchikov MA, Doggan S, Avrutin V, Cho SJ, Morkoc H (2005) A comprehensive review of ZnO materials and devices, J Appl Phys 98:041301-1~103
Roselli M, Finamore A, Garaguso I, Britti MS, Mengheri E (2003) Zinc oxide protects cultured enterocytes from the damage induced by Escherichia coli. J Nutr 133:4077–4082
Sawai J (2003) Quantitative evaluation of antibacterial activities of metallic oxide powders (ZnO, MgO and CaO) by conductimetric assay. J Microbiol Methods 54:177–182
Sawai J, Igarashi H, Hashimoto A, Kokugan T, Shimizu M (1995a) Evaluation of growth inhibitory effect of ceramics powder slurry on bacteria by conductance method. J Chem Eng Jpn 28:288–293
Sawai J, Saito I, Kanou F, Igarashi H, Hashimoto A, Kokugan T, Shimizu M (1995b) Mutagenicity test of ceramic powder which have growth inhibitory effect on bacteria. J Chem Eng Jpn 28:352–354
Sawai J, Igarashi H, Hashimoto A, Kokugan T, Shimizu M (1996a) Effect of particle size and heating temperature of ceramic powders on antibacterial activity of their slurries. J Chem Eng Jpn 29:251–256
Sawai J, Kawada E, Kanou F, Igarashi H, Hashimoto A, Kokugan T, Shimizu M (1996b) Detection of active oxygen generated from ceramic powders having antibacterial activity. J Chem Eng Jpn 29:627–633
Schaechter M, Ingraham JL, Neidhardt FC (2006) Microbe. ASM Press, Washington, DC, p 24
Schumacher K, Hasenzahl S, Moerters M (2004) Powder mixture consisting of titanium dioxide, zinc oxide and zinc/titanium mixed oxide. Worldwide Patent WO2004056706
Stoimenov PK, Klinger RL, Marchin GL, Klabunde KJ (2002) Metal oxide nanoparticles as bactericidal agents. Langmuir 18:6679–6686
Storz G, Imlay JA (1999) Oxidative stress. Curr Opin Microbiol 2:188–194
Utamapanya S, Klabunde KJ, Schlup JR (1991) Nanoscale metal oxide particles/clusters as chemical reagents: synthesis and properties of ultrahigh surface area magnesium hydroxide and magnesium oxide. Chem Mater 3:175–181
Wang YL, Wan YZ, Dong XH, Cheng GX, Tao HM, Wen TY (1998) Preparation and characterization of antibacterial viscose-based activated carbon fibre supporting silver. Carbon 36:1567–1571
Warheit DB, Laurence BR, Reed KL, Roach DH, Reynolds GA, Webb TR (2004) Comparative pulmonary toxicity assessment of single wall carbon nanotubes in rats. Toxicol Sci 77:117–125
Wasan DT, Nikolov AD (2003) Spreading of nanofluids on solids. Nature 423:156–159
Yamamoto O (2001) Influence of particle size on the antibacterial activity of zinc oxide. Int J Inorg Mater 3:643–646
Yamamoto O, Hotta M, Sawai J, Sasamoto T, Kojima H (1998) Influence of powder characteristic of ZnO on antibacterial activity—effect of specific surface area. J Ceram Soc Jpn 106:1007–1011
Yamamoto O, Komatsu M, Sawai J, Nakagawa Z (2004) Effect of lattice constant of zinc oxide on antibacterial characteristics. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 15:847–851
Zhang L, Jiang Y, Ding Y, Povey M, York D (2007) Antibacterial behaviour of suspensions of ZnO nanoparticles (Nanofluids). J Nanopart Res 9:479–489
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank University of Leeds Interdisciplinary Institute for Nanomanufacturing, Procter & Gamble, The White Rose Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) and EPSRC (EP/E00041X/1 and EP/F015380) for financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This study was carried out in the University of Leeds as part of L. Zhang’s PhD research.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, L., Jiang, Y., Ding, Y. et al. Mechanistic investigation into antibacterial behaviour of suspensions of ZnO nanoparticles against E. coli . J Nanopart Res 12, 1625–1636 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-009-9711-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-009-9711-1