STUDY OF IRON OXIDE NANOPARTICLES DOPED WITH COPPER: ANTIMICROBAL AND PHOTOCATALYTICAL ACTIVITY

Last decade is designated as the postantibiotic era due to increasing number of resistant and multiresistant strains of microorganisms, which developed resistance to one or more antibiotics. Antimicrobial resistance becomes a global health problem. This phenomenon of antimicrobial resistance will undoubtedly affect the efficiency and use of antibiotics in the future. Science and technological development are committed to researching and developing new antibiotics that will satisfy the missing criteria and address the problem of antimicrobial resistance. One of the possible solutions lies in nanotechnologies. Nanoparticles have been isolated as one of the most promising substances on which microorganisms rarely or even develop mechanisms of resistance. The nanoparticles may be in conjunction with already existing antibiotics structures and contribute to the improvement of physicochemical properties in order to successfully overcome the mechanism of antimicrobial resistance. By designing nanoparticles with proper physicochemical and biochemical characteristics we determine their application. The aim of this research is to dope synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles with copper ions in order to test their antimicrobial activity and to evaluate their use as potential antimicrobial agent. Extracts of green tea and ascorbic acid were used as reduction agent for the iron oxide nanoparticles doped with Cu. The antimicrobial activity of the synthesized nanoparticles on the isolates Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was performed by the agar well diffusion method. Synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles showed activity against Acinetobacter baumannii with inhibition zone around 12 mm. Photocatalytical activity was also evaluated by UV/VIS spectrophotometry. Samples doped with copper showed much better photocatalytical performances.