Entropy-stabilized oxides.

Configurational disorder can be compositionally engineered into mixed oxide by populating a single sublattice with many distinct cations. The formulations promote novel and entropy-stabilized forms of crystalline matter where metal cations are incorporated in new ways. Here, through rigorous experiments, a simple thermodynamic model, and a five-component oxide formulation, we demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that entropy predominates the thermodynamic landscape, and drives a reversible solid-state transformation between a multiphase and single-phase state. In the latter, cation distributions are proven to be random and homogeneous. The findings validate the hypothesis that deliberate configurational disorder provides an orthogonal strategy to imagine and discover new phases of crystalline matter and untapped opportunities for property engineering.

ZnO nanoparticles enhanced antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

Nanoparticle metal oxides offer a wide variety of potential applications in medicine due to the unprecedented advances in nanobiotechnology research. In this work, the effect of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles prepared by mechano-chemical method on the antibacterial activity of different antibiotics was evaluated using disk diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The average size of ZnO nanoparticles was between 20 nm and 45 nm. Although ZnO nanoparticles (500 microg/disk) decreased the antibacterial activity of amoxicillin, penicillin G, and nitrofurantoin in S. aureus, the antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin increased in the presence of ZnO nanoparticles in both test strains. A total of 27% and 22% increase in inhibition zone areas was observed for ciprofloxacin in the presence of ZnO nanoparticles in S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. The enhancing effect of this nanomaterial on the antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin was further investigated at three different contents (500, 1000, and 2000 microg/disk) against various clinical isolates of S. aureus and E. coli The enhancing effect of ZnO nanoparticles on the antibacterial activity of ciprofloxacin was concentration-dependent against all test strains. The most enhancing activities were observed in the contents of the 2000 microg/disk.