10 Understanding antibacterial disinfection mechanisms of oxide-based photocatalytic materials
Alaa Kamo, Ali Özcan, Özlem Ateş Sönmezoğlu, Savaş Sönmezoğlu
Abstract
Despite the fast-developing technological advances, the world of science and industry is still far from controlling environmental and health issues. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that it is essential to focus on the development of novel technologies, materials, and medical innovations to control these issues. In particular, microbial pathogens that directly or indirectly affect human health can sometimes threaten human health and cause dangerous infectious diseases. Recent developments show that engineered photocatalytic nanomaterials possessing antibacterial properties are attracting scientists as an alternative bacterial infection treatment method to overcome such bacterial/viral epidemics that have posed a serious problem and increased disquiet in recent years. Various oxide-based photocatalytic nanomaterials have been designed to work efficiently in outdoor and indoor environments for the photocatalytic disinfection of different pathogens. In this chapter, we throw light on the antibacterial mechanisms proposed on the most studied oxide-based photocatalysts, such as TiO2, ZnO, SnO2, CuO, and Zn2SnO4, and their relationship to the types of interactions triggering antibacterial activity. Finally, we discuss in detail the effect of intrinsic properties of nanomaterials, such as particle size, shape, zeta potential, and roughness on antibacterial activity, and the ways to improve the antibacterial activity of oxide-based nano-photocatalyst. © 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved.