Structural, Optical, Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties of Zirconia Nanoparticles by Biobased Protocol

Biological entities and inorganic materials have been in constant touch with each other ever since inception of life on earth. This method has lots of merits such as not requiring complex procedures, template supporting etc. In this work, Aloe vera plant mediated synthesis of tetragonal zirconia nanoparticles has been performed and thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM), ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) technique and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) have been provided for characterizing the nanoparticles. Formation of homogeneously distributed spherical zirconia nanoparticles of 50-100 nm in size is predicted. The antimicrobial and antifungal properties are also investigated for synthesis of zirconia nanoparticles and the treated cotton by agar diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacterial pathogens and fungal strains Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger, respectively.