Facile synthesis of Cu and CuO nanoparticles from copper scrap using plasma arc discharge method and evaluation of antibacterial activity

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, there is an imperative need of synthesising nanomaterials from industrial wastes in an eco-friendly manner. In this concern, Cu and CuO nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully synthesised from copper scrap using plasma arc discharge method under N₂ and air atmosphere. The synthesised NPs were confirmed using X-ray diffraction, UV-visible spectrophotometer and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy was carried out to study the morphology and average particle size of synthesised NPs. The results revealed that the particles exhibit spherical and distorted sphere morphology with average particle size of 78 nm and 67 nm for Cu and CuO NPs, respectively. The antibacterial activity has been examined against different gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The highest zone of inhibition was measured as 32 mm and 28 mm for Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria which indicates the potent of synthesised NPs in various biomedical applications that can be explored in future.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Nanoparticles
• copper scrap
• plasma arc discharge
• antibacterial activity
• Cu
• CuO

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Mr. K. Prabu of CSIR-National Chemical laboratory for extending his help in XRD characterisation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.