Thermal, dielectric and antimicrobial properties of polystyrene-assisted/ITO:Cu nanocomposites

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 125; no. 1; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: El Nahrawy, Amany. M., Hammad, Ali B. Abou, Youssef, Ahmed M., Mansour, A. M., Othman, Abdelmageed M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Antimicrobial agents; Applied physics; Bacteria; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Copper; Copper oxides; Cubic lattice; Degeneration; Dielectric properties; Differential scanning calorimetry; E coli; Gram-positive bacteria; Indium tin oxides; Machines; Manufacturing; Materials science; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polystyrene resins; Processes; Stability analysis; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thermal stability; Thermogravimetric analysis; Thin Films
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-018-2351-5

Polystyrene membranes were found to be an effective-assisted material in the growth of undoped and doped indium–tin–oxide (ITO) with different concentrations from 3 to 7 wt% of CuO nanoparticles. Nanocomposites were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, HR-SEM/TEM, and dielectric measurements. Polystyrene-assisted ITO nanocomposites (ITO/PS) showed the high crystalline phase with lattice fringes, and well agreed on the cubic phase of ITO. As the concentration of CuO increases in ITO/PS nanocomposite, the conductivity decreases. Differential scanning calorimetry/thermogravimetric analysis showed a good thermal stability of the prepared nanocomposites. The increase of CuO wt% did not affect the major degeneration temperature and the thermal stability of undoped composite. The highest conductivity was obtained for ITO doped with 7 wt% of CuO. The formed Polystyrene-assisted ITO:Cu nanocomposites demonstrated a considerable antimicrobial activity against non-filamentous fungi ( Candida albicans ), Gram-positive bacteria ( Bacillus mycoides ), and Gram-negative bacteria ( Escherichia coli ) at all tested concentrations (3.0–7.0 wt% of CuO) with maximum activity at 7.0 wt% of CuO.