Different metal particles are increasingly used to target bacteria as an alternative to antibiotics. Despite numerous data about treating bacterial infections, the utilization of metal particles in antibacterial coatings for implantable devices and medicinal materials promoting wound healing. The antibacterial mechanisms of nanoscale and microscale particles are poorly understood, but the currently accepted mechanisms include oxidative stress induction, metal ion release, and non-oxidative mechanisms. Thus, investigation of the antibacterial mechanisms of nanostructured metal particles is very important for the development of more effective antimicrobial materials. However, it is very difficult to develop a proper model for revealing the antibacterial mechanisms due to difficulty to choose a method that allows obtaining materials of various properties under approximately the same conditions. In this paper, we propose a green and feasible technique to create critical conditions for modification of zinc particles at highly non-equilibrium states. We demonstrate that the sonication process can be useful for fabrication the materials with oscillating physical, chemical and antibacterial properties. We believe this method besides medical applications can be also used in natural science basic research as an experimental tool for modelling the physical and chemical processes. After the sonication, the zinc particles exhibit a different surface morphology and amount of leached Zn2+ ions compared to initial ones. It has been revealed that oscillations of the Zn2+ ions concentration lead to oscillation the antibacterial properties. Thus, the properties of the materials can be easily altered by adjusting the ultrasound energy dissipated via varying the sonication.
Keywords: Antibacterial properties; Metal particles; Nanostructuring; Oscillations; Sonochemistry; Ultrasonic treatment; Zn(2+) ions.
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