Visible light-driven photocatalytic bacterial inactivation on PPE, supported by the DFT and bactericidal study

A novel ZnO-MoO(3)-ZnMoO(3)@graphene GZM composite catalyst prepared by microwave hydrothermal process for personal protective equipment textiles (PPE) is presented in this study. The results indicated that the GZM with defect vacancy sites of two types as observed by EPR showed significantly superior inactivation of the E. coli bacteria compared to GZM without the lower defect vacancy sites and concomitant lower electron densities. Photocatalytic activated oxidation by the GZM composites coatings was observed to proceed in acceptable times as well as the bacterial inactivation (log bact. C/C(o) > 10(7) within 3 h). Defect sites in the GZM seem to be important leading to the bacterial inactivation process. DFT calculations on the GZM with and without catalyst defect sites were carried out. The electron densities were estimated by the Fourier mapping. The results found in this study showed the potential of GZM-PPE for practical applications. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-023-27867-5.