Preparation and characterization of ZnO nanoparticles coated paper and its antibacterial activity study

Coating of ZnO nanoparticles on paper surface has potential technological applications. With this motivation, a simple approach of ultrasound assisted coating of paper with ZnO nanoparticles (similar to 20 nm) without the aid of binder is reported for the first time in this work. The ultrasound assisted coating approach concurs with "green'' chemistry as it is simple and environmentally friendly. Scanning electron microscope is used to characterize the surface morphology showing ZnO nanoparticles bound to cellulose fibers. Further characterization of coated surface is performed by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry in positive ion detection mode along with its imaging capability. The effect of ultrasound irradiation time on ZnO nanoparticles loading is estimated by thermogravimetric analysis. A plausible coating mechanism is proposed. The ZnO nanoparticles coated paper is found to possess antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli 11634.