Photocatalysis of nanocomposite titania-natural silica as antibacterial against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa .

The entries of pathogenic bacteria into the human body remain a severe problem to health that can be prevented using antibacterial agents. Meanwhile, the photocatalytic technique using semiconductor nanocomposite TiO 2 -SiO 2 has great potential as an antibacterial method. In order to utilize natural resources, SiO 2 supporting materials are obtained from the extraction of beach sand due to the high silica content. Therefore, this study aims to synthesize a nanocomposite of TiO 2 with SiO 2 extracted from beach sand as an antibacterial agent against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa . The antibacterial activity test used the dilution and optical density method. Based on XRD analysis, the crystals of TiO 2 in the synthesized composites showed a more dominant anatase structure. Furthermore, Ti-O-Si bonds were identified from the IR spectrum, which showed the interaction between TiO 2 and SiO 2 . In addition, SEM-EDX results showed agglomerated spherical particles with a TiO 2 -SiO 2 nanocomposite particle size of 40-107 nm. The best antibacterial activity was demonstrated by the 1 : 0.5 TiO 2 -SiO 2 nanocomposite, with inactivation percentages of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa of 98.69% and 97.44%, respectively.