Disinfection mechanism of the photocatalytic activity of SnO2 thin films against Candida albicans, proposed from experimental and simulated perspectives

Abstract

Nosocomial infections are an important health problem and cause of complications and death in hospitalized patients. This problem should be solved from the preventive angle, avoiding the spread of infections by designing disinfection methods based on the photocatalytic activity of semiconductor materials such as tin oxide (SnO2). The antimicrobial activity of UV light was tested by using inoculation with Candida albicans ATCC10231 on SnO2 thin films and counting colony forming units (CFU). The interaction of UV light with SnO2 was analyzed by density functional theory (DFT) and the extension to the Hubbard model (DFT+U) schemes to predict the electron behavior at the subatomic level. After exposure to UV light, C. albicans showed a reduction of 36.5% in viable cells, and when SnO2 was included, cell viability was reduced by 60.2%. Measurements of the electronic structure obtained by the first-principle calculations under the DFT and DFT+U schemes showed that the O-p orbitals mediate the oxidation process in the bulk semiconductor. By including the surface effects when cleaving the (1 0 0) plane, the three orbitals O-p, Sn-p, and Sn-s are the mediators. SnO2 films are promising antimicrobial coatings because UV light has a synergic activity with thin films, resulting in faster disinfection.