Zinc oxide nanoparticle suspensions and layer-by-layer coatings inhibit staphylococcal growth

Despite a decade of engineering and process improvements, bacterial colonization and infection remain the primary threats to implanted medical devices. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are attractive alternatives to silver NPs or antimicrobial peptides for device coatings to prevent infection. Here we address several questions regarding ZnO-NPs and their interactions with bacteria in an effort to translate this material toward antibacterial medical device coatings. Using a Layer-by-layer technique we demonstrate that ZnO-NP coatings reduce staphylococcal biofilm burden by > 95%.628