Inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus in visible light by morphology tuned α-NiMoO4

α-NiMoO4 has been successfully implemented in different morphologies via microwave hydrothermal technique in presence of surfactants (Polyethylene Glycol, Sodium Citrate, and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate). The inactivation of multidrug-resistant pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has been investigated in the presence of visible light as well as in dark. S. aureus was inactivated in 6 h under visible light irradiation. A slight inactivation of S. aureus was observed in dark. The generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, ROS (O2−, OH, and H2O2) in visible light was observed by using 2, 7-dichloro-dihydro-fluorescein diacetate (DCFA-DA) and nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT), which suggests the bacterial inactivation by ROS. Nanowires morphology of α-NiMoO4 exhibited effective bactericidal efficiency in visible light as compared to small bundle of needles, nanorod, large bundle of needles because of small size/diameter, toxicity, enhancement of ROS generation, and high BET surface area. The damages in the phospholipid layer present in the cell membrane of S. aureus were observed by FESEM analysis. Furthermore, the observation of DNA damages and protein degradation percentage give the evidence of ROS effect for deactivating the bacteria. So, this study offers new insight into the photocatalytic inactivation of multidrug-resistant microorganisms by morphology modulated visible light driven α-NiMoO4 photocatalyst.