Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONPs) have been widely recognized as good antimicrobial agents but are heavily regulated due to environmental concerns of their post use. In this work, we have developed and tested a novel type of formulation for copper oxide (CuONPs) which have been functionalized with (3-Glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GLYMO) to allow further covalent coupling of 4-Hydroxyphenylboronic acid (4-HPBA). As the boronic acid (BA) groups on the surface of CuONPs/GLYMO/4-HPBA can form reversible covalent bonds with the diols groups of glycoproteins on the bacterial cell surface, they can strongly bind to the cells walls resulting in a very strong enhancement of their antibacterial action which is not based on electrostatic adhesion. SEM and TEM imaging revealed that 4-HPBA-functionalized nanoparticles could accumulate more on the cell surface than non-functionalized ones. We demonstrate that the CuONPs with boronic acid surface functionality are far superior antibacterial agents compared to bare CuONPs. Our results showed that, the antibacterial impact of the 4-HPBA functionalized CuONPs on Rhodococcus rhodochrous (R. rhodochrous) and Escherichia coli (E.coli) is one order of magnitude higher than that of bare CuONPs or CuONPs/GLYMO. We also observed a marked increase of the 4-HPBA functionalized CuONPs antibacterial action on these microorganisms at shorter incubation times compared with the bare CuONPs at the same conditions. Significantly, we show that the cytotoxicity of CuONPs functionalized with 4-HPBA as an outer layer can be controlled by the concentration of glucose in the media and that the effect is reversible as glucose competes with the sugar residues on the bacterial cell walls for the BA-groups on the CuONPs. Our experiments with human keratinocyte cell line exposure to CuONPs/GLYMO/4-HPBA indicated lack of measurable cytotoxicity at particle concentration which are effective as antibacterial agent for both R. rhodochrous and E.coli. We envisage that formulations of CuONPs/GLYMO/4-HPBA can be used to drastically reduce the overall CuO concentration in antimicrobial formulations while strongly increasing their efficiency.

Colloidal particles are being extensively studied in various antimicrobial applications due to their small size to volume ratio and ability to exhibit a wide spectrum of antibacterial, antifungal, antialgal and antiviral action. The present review focuses on various nanoparticles (NPs) of inorganic, organic and hybrid materials, and discusses some of the methods for their preparation as well as mechanisms of their antimicrobial action. We consider the antimicrobial applications of metal oxide nanoparticles (ZnO, MgO, CuO, CuO, AlO, TiO, CeO and YO), metal nanoparticles (NPs), such as copper, silver and gold, metal hydroxide NPs such as Mg(OH) as well as hybrid NPs made from biodegradable materials, such as chitosan, lignin and dextran, loaded with other antimicrobial agents. Recent developments for targeted delivery of antimicrobials by using colloid antibodies for microbial cell shape and surface recognition are also discussed. We also consider recent advances in the functionalization of nanoparticles and their potential antimicrobial applications as a viable alternative of conventional antibiotics and antiseptic agents which can help to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The review also covers the recently developed environmentally benign NPs (EbNPs) as a "safer-by-design" green chemistry solution of the post use fate of antimicrobial nanomaterials.

Magnesium hydroxide nanoparticles (Mg(OH)2NPs) have recently attracted significant attention due to their wide applications as environmentally friendly antimicrobial nanomaterials, with potentially low toxicity and low fabrication cost. Here, we describe the synthesis and characterisation of a range of surface modified Mg(OH)2NPs, including particle size distribution, crystallite size, zeta potential, isoelectric point, X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We explored the antimicrobial activity of the modified Mg(OH)2NPs on the microalgae (C. reinhardtii), yeast (S. cerevisiae) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The viability of these cells was evaluated for various concentrations and exposure times with Mg(OH)2NPs. It was discovered that the antimicrobial activity of the uncoated Mg(OH)2NPs on the viability of C. reinhardtii occurred at considerably lower particle concentrations than for S. cerevisiae and E. coli. Our results indicate that the antimicrobial activity of polyelectrolyte-coated Mg(OH)2NPs alternates with their surface charge. The anionic nanoparticles (Mg(OH)2NPs/PSS) have much lower antibacterial activity than the cationic ones (Mg(OH)2NPs/PSS/PAH and uncoated Mg(OH)2NPs). These findings could be explained by the lower adhesion of the Mg(OH)2NPs/PSS to the cell wall, because of electrostatic repulsion and the enhanced particle-cell adhesion due to electrostatic attraction in the case of cationic Mg(OH)2NPs. The results can be potentially applied to control the cytotoxicity and the antimicrobial activity of other inorganic nanoparticles.