Investigation on the electrical conductivity of ZnO nanoparticles-decorated bacterial nanowires

Muthuchamy Maruthupandy, Muthusamy Anand, Govindhan Maduraiveeran, Santhanakrishnan Suresh, Akbar Sait Hameedha Beevi and Radhakrishnan Jeeva Priya

Abstract

Electrical conductivity of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs)-decorated bacterial nanowires is investigated in the present work. The ZnO NPs are prepared through a simple precipitation method and characterized by UV–vis spectrophotometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The SEM analysis discloses that the prepared ZnO NPs are spherical in shape with an average particle size of 3.5 nm. The ZnO NPs are decorated on the surface of bacterial nanowires and the same are characterized by AFM and HRTEM. The electrochemical performance of the bare bacterial nanowires and ZnO NPs-decorated bacterial nanowires is analyzed by cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry, whereas their electrical conductivity is measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results of the electrochemical investigations indicate that the ZnO NPs coating on the surface of bacterial nanowires improve the electrical conductivity of the bacterial nanowires