Synthesis, Characterization, Applications and Computational Studies of CA4 Hydrogels Incorporated with ZnO Nanoparticles [CA4 - ZnO]

Abstract

In this work, hydrogels (CA₄) were synthesized through an esterification reaction using Citric acid (CA), triethanolamine (TEA), and 2-furoic acid (FA), and subsequently incorporated with nano-ZnO particles to obtain [CA₄-ZnO] hydrogels. By evaluating the synthesized [CA₄-ZnO] nanocomposite hydrogels using a variety of analytical methods, including UV, FTIR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, TGA and SEM-EDX. It was confirmed that nano Zinc oxide were incorporated within the CA₄ network. Swelling behavior and a pH range of 2.0 to 11.0 were used to closely study the hydrogels properties. As a result, neutral media (pH 7.0) had the highest swelling percentage, compared to acidic and alkaline medium. Swelling equilibrium results significantly improve when nano ZnO concentrations increases. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the hydrogels of the [CA₄-ZnO] nanocomposite were thermally stable up to 300 ⁰C. The Antibacterial studies were carried out with the gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis), and Gram negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli) shows excellent results in inhibition percentage. The antifungal studies show the lower zone of inhibition. The Cytotoxic studies reveals good percentage of cell viability and antioxidant analysis were also studied which exhibits good zone of inhibition percentage. The optimized hydrogels docking studies revealing that the biological activity has been enhanced with inclusion of nano ZnO in the hydrogels. [CA₄-ZnO] nanocomposite hydrogels with the latter protein showed a stronger and more favorable binding to Clumping Factor A. The [CA₄-ZnO] nanocomposite hydrogels is capable of overcoming drug resistance and nano zinc oxide based hydrogels had respective anti-bacterial and wound healing properties. Thus, the compounds studied in this work might be useful for tissue engineering, wound healing, and other high-performance uses.