Exploration of the antibacterial capacity and ethanol sensing ability of Cu-TiO2 nanoparticles

Titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) is one of the most scrutinized material because of its in-built fundamental properties and has been developed as an outstanding photo-catalytic material intended for many different industrial applications. In order to further explore the properties of TiO 2 , we prepared Copper-loaded TiO 2 (Cu-TiO 2 ) nanoparticles (NPs) for inhibiting the growth of bacterial cells and also to serve as a chemical sensor. The physico-chemical characteristics of the synthesized Cu-TiO 2 NPs were characterized by many different techniques for the crystallinity, bonding and functionality, morphology, elemental composition, and absorption characteristics. From the results, we confirm for the formation of anatase phase of TiO 2 having a tetragonal crystal system, while the morphology studies indicated that the Cu dope TiO 2 has spherical morphology. The elemental analysis confirmed for the inclusion of Cu into TiO 2 crystal lattice and the absorption spectroscopic analysis helped for the bandgap calculation and visible light absorption property of Cu-TiO 2 NPs. The metal nanoclusters of Cu are observed to be deposited on different phases and sites of TiO 2 resulting in the inter-band transitions. Further, the sensitivity of Cu-TiO 2 as a chemical sensor is determined by fabricating the electrode at the FTO glass substrate where the ethanol sensitivity was found to be little increased/enhanced with Cu loading. Finally, the antibacterial activity of Cu-TiO 2 NPs was confirmed by its activity against various bacterial cultures and are found to be efficient.