ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF COPPER/POLYPYRROLE NANOCOMPOSITE

Abstract

A novel and favorable antibacterial agent as a combination of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) and polypyrrole (PPy) is presented. By simple in situ polymerization method, copper/polypyrrole (Cu/PPy) nanocomposite with spherical CuNPs, around 25 nm in diameter, uniformly dispersed throughout PPy matrix with granular morphology, was characterized and subjected to determination of antibacterial activity toward bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Knowing that when acting alone, CuNPs and PPy have already shown antimicrobial responce, their mutual and synergetic engagement against bacteria in this survey is somewhat expected. After a twenty-four-hour interaction with S. aureus, already 2 ppm of Cu/PPy with only 9.45 wt% content of Cu is acting almost completely cidal, with 99.17% of bacterial growth inhibition. Such nanocomposite could easily find application in water disinfection, soil sterilization and food preservation.