Antifungal activity of magnetically separable Fe3O4/ZnO/AgBr nanocomposites prepared by a facile microwave-assisted method

• Main Authors: Abolghasem Hoseinzadeh, Aziz Habibi-Yangjeh, Mahdi Davari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2016-08-01
• Series: Progress in Natural Science: Materials International
• Subjects: Fe3O4/ZnO/AgBr; Antifungal activity; Magnetic nanocomposite; Fusarium; Microwave irradiation
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1002007116300661

In the present work, magnetically separable Fe3O4/ZnO/AgBr nanocomposites with different weight ratios of Fe3O4 to ZnO/AgBr were prepared by a facile microwave-assisted method. The resultant samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDX), and vibrating sample magnetometery (VSM). Antifungal activity of the as-prepared samples was evaluated against Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum as two phytopathogenic fungi. Among the nanocomposites, the sample with 1:8 weight ratio of Fe3O4 to ZnO/AgBr was selected as the best nanocomposite. This nanocomposite inactivates Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum at 120 and 60 min, respectively. Moreover, it was observed that the microwave irradiation time has considerable influence on the antifungal activity and the sample prepared by irradiation for 10 min showed the best activity. Moreover, the nanocomposite without any thermal treatment displayed the superior activity.