Photocatalysis of nanocomposite titania-natural silica as antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 11; no. 61; pp. 38528 - 38536
• Main Authors: Luthfiah, Annisa, Permana, Muhamad Diki, Deawati, Yusi, Firdaus, M Lutfi, Rahayu, Iman, Eddy, Diana Rakhmawaty
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 08.12.2021; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Anatase; Chemistry; Dilution; Nanocomposites; Natural resources; Optical density; Photocatalysis; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Sand; Silicon dioxide; Synthesis; Titanium; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d1ra07043f

The entries of pathogenic bacteria into the human body remain a severe problem to health that can be prevented using antibacterial agents. Meanwhile, the photocatalytic technique using semiconductor nanocomposite TiO -SiO has great potential as an antibacterial method. In order to utilize natural resources, SiO supporting materials are obtained from the extraction of beach sand due to the high silica content. Therefore, this study aims to synthesize a nanocomposite of TiO with SiO extracted from beach sand as an antibacterial agent against and . The antibacterial activity test used the dilution and optical density method. Based on XRD analysis, the crystals of TiO in the synthesized composites showed a more dominant anatase structure. Furthermore, Ti-O-Si bonds were identified from the IR spectrum, which showed the interaction between TiO and SiO . In addition, SEM-EDX results showed agglomerated spherical particles with a TiO -SiO nanocomposite particle size of 40-107 nm. The best antibacterial activity was demonstrated by the 1 : 0.5 TiO -SiO nanocomposite, with inactivation percentages of and of 98.69% and 97.44%, respectively.