Effective antimicrobial activity of ZnO and Yb-doped ZnO nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli

Nanostructured Zn1-xYbxO (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) powders were prepared by the solution method using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sucrose. The effect of the ytterbium doping content on the structural, morphological, optical and antimicrobial properties was analyzed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the hexagonal wurtzite structure was retained, and no secondary phases due to doping were observed. The crystallite size was under 20 nm for all the Zn1-xYbxO (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) powders. The optical band gap was calculated, and the results revealed that this value increased with the ytterbium content, and the Eg values varied from 3.06 to 3.10 eV. The surface chemistry of the powders was analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the results confirmed the oxidation state of ytterbium as 3+ for all the samples. Zn1-xYbxO (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) nanoparticles were tested as antimicrobial agents against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, resulting in a potential antimicrobial effect at most of the tested concentrations. These results were used in an artificial neural network (ANN). The results showed that it is possible to generate a model capable of forecasting the absorbance with good precision (error of 1–2%). [Display omitted] •Synthesis of ZnO and Yb-doped ZnO nanoparticles via polymerization-solution method•The ZnO and Yb-doped ZnO nanoparticles were characterized extensively.•ZnO and Yb-doped ZnO nanoparticles show effective antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.•ANN was trained and tested with lab data. The model generated can predict absorbance with 1–2% error.