Role of Fe-Doping on ZnO’s Morphology and Antibacterial Action

ZnO is an important semiconductor used in optoelectronics, pharmaceuticals, solar cells, etc. ZnO nano- and micro- structures become increasingly important as substitutes of antibiotics because bacteria cannot easily evolve to combat metal oxides. We investigate a hypothesis of antibacterial action of ZnO being associated with a defect-induced ion release, where the Zn will act as a “Trojan Horse” in a biomimetic substitution of iron ions. Fe is theorized to induce additional dipole moments within the ZnO structure, thus reducing Zn ion release, ultimately making the crystal more stable. In our experiments, we study ZnO doped with different percentages of Fe to test the hypothesis mentioned above. We synthesized Fe-doped ZnO micro- and nanocrystals using a hydrothermal method. We characterized our samples via scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. We also conducted antibacterial assays with Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria.