Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of antibacterial and antifungal activities of CuO-ZnO-CoO nanocomposites.

The co-precipitation method was used to prepare CuO, ZnO, CoO nanoparticles and CuO-ZnO-CoO nanocomposite. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the prepared samples were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and zeta potential. XRD analysis revealed that the crystal structures of CuO, ZnO, and CoO nanoparticles are monoclinic, hexagonal, and cubic, with average crystallite sizes of 30.8 nm, 31.8 nm, and 32.8 nm, respectively. For CuO-ZnO-CoO nanocomposites, the corresponding sizes were 24.9 nm, 13.6 nm, and 16.1 nm. The optical bandgaps of CuO, ZnO, CoO nanoparticles, and CuO-ZnO-CoO nanocomposites were 1.5 eV, 3.14 eV, 1.2 eV, and 1.3 eV, respectively. In this study, the antibacterial activity of CuO-ZnO-CoO nanocomposite against Gram-negative bacteria () and Gram-positive bacteria () was investigated and compared with the antibiotic . In addition, the effect of the nanocomposite on fungi was studied and compared with the antifungal .