Developing Antibacterial Materials: Synthesis and Characterization of Cerium-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

Nadia Mahmoudi khatir ¹

Fariba Ebadi Fallah ¹

Zahra Nazem Bokaei ²

Ali Mohammadi ³

Hadi Khorsand Zak ⁴

Ali Khorsand Zak ⁵

¹ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Plant Sciences , Faculty of Biological Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

³ Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

⁴ Children's Education Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medical Sciences of North Khorasan, bejnord, Iran

⁵ Nanobiotechnology Laboratory, Esfarayen University of Technology, Esfarayen, 96619-98195, North Khorasan, Iran

10.22067/jmme.2025.92358.1193

Abstract

This study specifically investigates the antibiotic properties of cerium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were synthesized using a green sol-gel method, and their antimicrobial activity was evaluated against two bacterial strains: Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive (S. aureus), at concentrations of 1000 and 4000 ppm. The assessment was performed using both well diffusion and disk diffusion methods by measuring the diameter of the inhibition zones. The results demonstrated that E. coli exhibited greater sensitivity to the nanoparticles, which is likely attributable to structural differences in the cell walls of these two bacterial species. Both types of nanoparticles (pure ZnO and Zn0.98Ce0.02O2) showed antimicrobial properties; however, the incorporation of cerium into the ZnO structure significantly enhanced its antibiotic efficacy, as evidenced by the larger inhibition zones observed in the cerium-containing samples. These findings indicate that cerium doping, in addition to inducing morphological changes in the nanoparticles, also leads to improved antimicrobial properties. The increased diameters of inhibition zones around the disks and wells containing cerium-doped nanoparticles further confirm this observation.

Keywords

Biopolymer

sol-gel

green synthesis

zinc oxide-cerium nanoparticles

Subjects

• Nanomaterials

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