Chemical Mediated Synthesis of Polyaniline/Tungstenoxide (PANI/WO3) Nanocomposites and Their Antibacterial Activity Against Clinical Pathogenic Bacteria

Polyaniline and tungsten oxide (PANI/WO 3 )-doped nanocomposites were synthesised by in situ chemical oxidation technique using different weight percentage of WO 3 (10%, 30% and 50%), and the polymerization of PANI was carried out by using ammonium persulphate as an oxidising agent. These nanocomposites are characterized by physical methods, viz., Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The X-ray pattern confirmed that the formation of polyaniline and SEM micrographs exhibited agglomeration and showed that WO 3 particles have a strong effect on the morphology of composites with average grain sizes of 10–20 nm. FTIR spectra revealed the strong bonding between PANI and WO 3 particles. Further, these nanocomposites doped with 10% (P1), 30% (P3) and 50% (P5) of WO 3 were tested for their antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria, viz., Escherichia coli , Enterobacter aerogenes , Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhimurium . Results revealed that these nanocomposites had shown potential antibacterial activity against all the tested pathogenic strains which was confirmed by clear zone of inhibition.