Synthesis of Cu2O/biochar composites and their antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli

Abstract

In this study, distilers' grains were used to prepare biochar, which is renewable and ecofriendly, then cuprous oxides nanoparticles were loaded to the biochar to improve the properties of Cu2O. Their structure and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and brunauer-emmett-teller (BET) specific surface area. The results showed that the Cu2O nanoparticles were loaded onto the biochar successfully and the biochar-based Cu2O nanoparticles (Cu2O/biochar composites) have larger specific surface area than pure Cu2O nanoparticles. Their antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) was examined by tablet colony counting method and optical density (OD) method. The results showed that the Cu2O/biochar composites were more effective and had superior antibacterial performance than pure Cu2O nanoparticles which indicated that Cu2O/biochar composites have good application prospect in antibacterial field.