%0 Journal Article
%T Antimicrobial Activity of Carbon Nanoparticles Isolated from Natural Sources against Pathogenic Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Bacteria
%A Sheena Varghese
%A Sunny Kuriakose
%A Soumya Jose
%J Journal of Nanoscience
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/457865
%X This paper describes the isolation of carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) from kitchen soot, characterization of the CNPs by UV/visible spectroscopy, SEM and XRD, and their antimicrobial action. The antibacterial activity of the isolated carbon nanoparticles was tested against various pathogenic bacterial strains such as Gram-negative Proteus refrigere and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus haemolyticus. The inhibition zones were measured, and it was found that the carbon nanoparticles isolated from natural sources are active against these Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial strains. 1. Introduction Carbon is one of the most abundant elements in nature. Carbonbased nanomaterials have attracted great interest in recent decades. A broad range of carbon nanostructures have been prepared, such as carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, nanofibers, nanodiamond, carbon nanoonions, and other carbonaceous nanomaterials. Carbon nanoparticles have excellent applications because of their unique chemical and physical properties. CNPs can result in a reduction in material weight and in the obtaining of materials with higher impact strength, high surface area per unit volume, electrical conductivity, optical properties, thermal stability, flame resistance, and dimensional stability [1, 2]. Potential newly found application of carbon nanoparticles occurs in nanoscience nanotechnology in such diverse areas as protective coatings, antimicrobial agents, electronic and optical devices, microsensors, and pollution prevention materials. In biological science carbon based nanomaterials have been utilised as excellent platforms for facilitating biochemical reactions and processes, such as sensitive recognition of antibodies, sequencing of nucleic acids, bioseparation, and biocatalysis [3, 4]. Due to the emergence of infectious diseases caused by different pathogenic microbes the pharmaceutical companies and the researchers are searching for new antimicrobial agents. Some of antimicrobial agents are extremely irritant and toxic to humans. Thus, the formulation of new effective, resistance-free, low-cost, and natural origin antimicrobial agents is of great interest [4¨C9]. An antibacterial drug in medication is used to treat bacterial infections. In the present scenario nanoscale materials such as CNPs have emerged up as novel antimicrobial agents owing to their high surface area to volume ratio and its unique chemical and physical properties [10, 11]. The integration of nanotechnology and microbiology leads to possible advance in the
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jns/2013/457865/