Faculty Mentor Information
Jerry D. Harris, Northwest Nazarene University
Additional Funding Sources
The work was supported by funding from the American Chemical Society Project SEED, an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Grant #P20GM103408, and Northwest Nazarene University.
Presentation Date
7-2023
Abstract
Antibiotics are important in medicine and are well-known as life-saving drugs. However, bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to traditional antibiotics. One new class of potential antibacterial agents is metal oxides, such as zinc oxide. This project focuses on synthesizing and characterizing nickel-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles prepared with varying amounts of cinnamic acid (CA). When the Zn0.85Ni0.15O(CA)x nanoparticles are capped with cinnamic acid, preliminary results have shown an increase in the antibacterial properties of the particles. The Zn0.85Ni0.15O(CA)x nanoparticles in this experiment were prepared by alkali precipitation from methanol solutions at 65°C. The cinnamic acid to metal ratio was varied from 3:1 to 0.1:1 to understand how the CA to metal ratio alters the nanoparticle’s physical and chemical properties. All materials were characterized by FT-IR to confirm the presence of CA on the particles, TGA to quantitatively determine the amount of CA bound to the nanoparticles, and TEM to determine particle size. The materials were also characterized by X-ray powder diffraction to confirm structure type and purity and to calculate crystallite size using the Scherrer equation. The materials were used to decolorize malachite green dye solutions under UV illumination to measure their photochemical activity. The first-order rate constant for the decolorization was determined for each material.
Synthesis and Characterization of Zn0.85Ni0.15O(CA)x Nanoparticles with Varying Amounts of Cinnamic Acid
Antibiotics are important in medicine and are well-known as life-saving drugs. However, bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to traditional antibiotics. One new class of potential antibacterial agents is metal oxides, such as zinc oxide. This project focuses on synthesizing and characterizing nickel-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles prepared with varying amounts of cinnamic acid (CA). When the Zn0.85Ni0.15O(CA)x nanoparticles are capped with cinnamic acid, preliminary results have shown an increase in the antibacterial properties of the particles. The Zn0.85Ni0.15O(CA)x nanoparticles in this experiment were prepared by alkali precipitation from methanol solutions at 65°C. The cinnamic acid to metal ratio was varied from 3:1 to 0.1:1 to understand how the CA to metal ratio alters the nanoparticle’s physical and chemical properties. All materials were characterized by FT-IR to confirm the presence of CA on the particles, TGA to quantitatively determine the amount of CA bound to the nanoparticles, and TEM to determine particle size. The materials were also characterized by X-ray powder diffraction to confirm structure type and purity and to calculate crystallite size using the Scherrer equation. The materials were used to decolorize malachite green dye solutions under UV illumination to measure their photochemical activity. The first-order rate constant for the decolorization was determined for each material.