Elucidation of Structural, Morphological, Electrical Parameters, and Anti-Bacterial Activity of Polyaniline-Nanocomposite: New Paradigm of Controlling Bacterial Activity

In this communication, we purpose an alternative electrical method to determine the anti-bacterial activity of compounds. Polyaniline/magnetite (Fe
₃
O
₄
/PANI) and polyaniline/hydrochloric acid (HCl/PANI) nanocomposites have been prepared. We have tested the anti-bacterial activity of Fe
₃
O
₄
/PANI and HCl/PANI nanocomposites by
Agarwell Diffusion Assay
and
Bacterial Inhibition Assay
method. The electrical characteristics of the prepared composites have been measured. The doping of 12% of Fe
₃
O
₄
in PANI caused a substantial increase in anti-bacterial activity. The observed bacterial inhibition is in agreement with optimized values of resistivity, loss factor, quality factor, and spontaneous magnetization. Sample 2 associated with 12% Fe
₃
O
₄
-PANI composites has a high resistivity of
$1.70\times 10^{{6}}\Omega $
.m among all prepared composites. The magnetic character and insulating nature of Fe
₃
O
₄
influenced the investigated parameters. The morphological variation of prepared composites is also consistent with electrical parameters. The alleviated energy zone formed by the magnetic behavior of Fe
₃
O
₄
and interfacial polarization of PANI mitigates the polarization/field of charge carriers of bacteria. These effects altogether diminish the energy of bacterial zone revealed in the experiment. The tuning of electrical parameters provides an alternative to control bacterial growth in various compounds. The proposed method of electrical characterization for the detection of the anti-bacterial activity of the compounds can be very useful in terms of time and cost in contrast to the lab tests performed in biological labs. After implementing an electrical parameter standard equivalent to anti-bacterial activity, real-time detection can be performed by electrical parameters in the fields outside without any hassle, which otherwise is not possible for biological labs.