The Influence of the Incorporation Method and Mass Ratio of Copper on the Antibacterial Activity of MCM-41

This work deals with the use for the first time of waste spent glass as a new source of silicon and aluminum in the synthesis of highly ordered MCM-41 nanomaterials and also treats the method (namely direct and indirect) of its activation by copper under different mass ratios Si/Cu 60; 80 and 100. The evaluation of the activation method efficiency is tested against Gram-negative ( E. coli ) and Gram-positive ( S. aureus and Bacillus cunis ). The ordered MCM-41 nanomaterials were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis using the waste spent glass as silicon and aluminum sources. The silicon and aluminum needed for the synthesis of MCM-41 are extracted from waste spent glass by the alkaline fusion process. The copper is added to the MCM by two mentioned methods separately to obtain Cu-MCM-41. The resulting MCM were characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and Fourier transformed Infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR). Evaluation data revealed that the ordered mesoporous Cu-MCM-41 nanomaterials by both methods under different mass ratios Si/Cu are obtained. The high crystalline order is attributed to the mass ratio Si/Cu 100 for both methods. It is also noted that the specific surface areas of all mass ratios in both methods are up to 1000 m 2 g −1 . No relationship is found between surface area and substitution method or metal content. Indeed, the efficiency of copper incorporation method of Cu-MCM-41 synthesized under molar ratio (Si/C = 100) in their two different states calcined and un-calcined are applied as antibacterial inhibitors against Gram-negative (E. coli ) and Gram-positive ( S. aureus and Bacillus cunis ). The results obtained by the application of Cu-MCM-41 materials as antibacterial inhibitors appear to be very promising. However, the indirect method shows a slight improvement in antibacterial inhibition compared to the direct method.