Abstract
•ZnO nanotubes were been successfully synthesized via simple hydrothermal solution route.•ZnO nanotubes exhibited a wall thickness about 2nm, with an average diameter of 17nm.•ZnO nanotubes have excellent potencies for many biomedical applications.
ZnO nanotubes with the wurtzite structure have been successfully synthesized via simple hydrothermal solution route using zinc nitrate, urea and KOH for the first time. The structural, compositions and morphology architectures of the as synthesized ZnO nanotubes was performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and high resolution transmission scanning electron microscopy (HRTEM). TEM showed that ZnO nanotubes exhibited a wall thickness of less than 2nm, with an average diameter of 17nm and the length is 2μm. In addition, the antibacterial activity of ZnO nanotubes was carried out in vitro against two kinds of bacteria: gram - negative bacteria (G −ve) i.e. Escherichia coli (E. coli) and gram – positive bacteria (G +ve) i.e. Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, this work demonstrates that simply synthesized ZnO nanotubes have excellent potencies, being ideal antibacterial agents for many biomedical applications.