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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Eco-friendly plasma-assisted synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles as antibiofilm agents

Nisreen Kh. Abdalameer1* ,  Waleed Raad Talib2 ,  Fadhl Ahmed Saeed Al-Gashaa3 ,  Raghad S. Mohammed4
BMT, 179 https://doi.org/10.12336/bmt.25.00179
Submitted: 12 September 2025 | Revised: 20 December 2025 | Accepted: 11 March 2026 | Published: 28 May 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). Licensee Biomaterials Translational, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en)
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Abstract

In the present study, we utilized cold plasma-assisted synthesis as a more environmentally friendly strategy for synthesizing copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs). This plasma-assisted approach offers a green, scalable, and efficient pathway for the fabrication of NPs that does not involve toxic chemical reducing agents. The synthesized CuO NPs were characterized through ultraviolet visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). An optical band gap of around 2.4 eV was obtained from the UV-visible characterization, further proving the semiconductor nature of the synthesized NPs. SEM imaging revealed mostly spherical particles of average diameter 20 nm, although partial agglomeration and nanocluster formation were observed. FTIR analysis showed that CuO vibrational bands and hydroxyl/water-related bands, supporting the formation of CuO NPs and the presence of surface-adsorbed water or hydroxyl groups. In addition, Structural characterization by XRD pattern confirmed the crystalline structure of CuO NPs. The antibiofilm activity of synthesized NPs was assessed against clinically relevant bacterial strains such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The results showed marked biofilm inhibition, reaching a maximum of 70.18% in E. coli. Mechanistic studies revealed that CuO NPs cause structural damage to the bacterial cell membrane, thereby decreasing biofilm integrity. The improvement of antibacterial and antibiofilm efficiency depended on the nanoscale size (20 nm) and low surface roughness (~6.15 nm), which could increase interaction with bacterial cells, enhance ion release, and elevate oxidative stress. These results suggest that plasma-assisted synthesis can produce CuO NPs with promising antibiofilm activity.

Keywords
Plasma
Copper oxide
Antibiofilm
Escherichia coli
Staphylococcus aureus
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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