Study of Antibacterial Activity of Cu NPs and Fluorescent C-Dots Based Nano-gel

Abstract

Post-operative infection is a serious health problem which is considered to be one of the major causes of mortality worldwide. To address this issue, anti-bacterial gels and antibiotics have been used since ages which serve the purpose of killing of bacteria, inhibiting their growth and restricting their passage to underlying tissues. Although different kinds of gels and creams have been used for this purpose, the nano-composite based gels are found to be more effective owing to the unique size dependent properties of nanoparticles. Since most of the nanoparticles based gels presently available in market are mainly made up of silver nanoparticles, they raise the issue of toxicity. Herein, we have developed an antibacterial nano gel by using copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) and fluorescent carbon quantum dots (C-dots) which are biocompatible and less immunogenic. The developed composite nano gel showed synergistic bactericidal activity as compared to its individual component. Therefore, the use of composite nano gel of Cu NPs and C-dots may offer huge promise of development of an effective wound care material.