Synthesis and characterization of ZnO/palygorskite

Abstract This paper reports the synthesis of ZnO/palygorskite (ZnO/PGS) composites prepared by coating palygorskite (PGS) fibres with ZnO nanoparticles. The samples were characterized by thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmet–Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). The PGS fibres were uniformly coated with well-crystallized ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of 15 nm. The composites still retained the fibre-like morphology of PGS and showed excellent antibacterial activity against E. coli. A possible antibacterial mechanism was proposed.