Production of Ceramics/Metal Oxide Nanofibers via Electrospinning: New Insights into the Photocatalytic and Bactericidal Mechanisms

Abstract

Environmental pollution is steadily rising and is having a negative influence on all living things, especially human beings. The advancement of nanoscience in recent decades has provided potential to address this issue. Functional metal oxide nanoparticles/nanofibers have been having a pull-on effect in the biological and environmental domains of nanobiotechnology. Current work, for the first time, is focusing on the electrospinning production of Zr0.5Sn0.5TiO3/SnO2 ceramic nanofibers that may be utilized to battle lethal infections swiftly and inexpensively. By using characterizations like XRD, FT–IR, FESEM, TEM, PL, and UV–Vis–DRS, the composition, structure, morphology, and optical absorption of samples were determined. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) approach was used to investigate the antibacterial activity. Notably, this research indicated that nanofibers exert antibacterial action against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with a MIC of 25 µg/mL. Furthermore, negatively charged E. coli was drawn to positively charged metal ions of Zr0.5Sn0.5TiO3/SnO2, which showed a robust inhibitory effect against E. coli. It was interesting to discover that, compared to pure TiO2, Zr0.5Sn0.5TiO3/SnO2 nanofibers revealed increased photocatalytic activity and exceptional cyclability to the photodegradation of Rhodamine B. The composite completely degrades dye in 30 min with 100% efficacy and excellent (97%) reusability. The synergetic effects of Zr0.5Sn0.5TiO3 and SnO2 may be responsible for increased photocatalytic and bactericidal activity.