Enhanced wound healing activity of Ag–ZnO composite NPs in Wistar Albino rats

Abstract

In the present study, silver (Ag) and Ag–zinc oxide (ZnO) composite nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesised and studied their wound-healing efficacy on rat model. Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy of AgNPs displayed an intense surface plasmon (SP) resonance absorption at 450 nm. After the addition of aqueous Zn acetate solution, SP resonance band has shown at 413.2 nm indicating a distinct blue shift of about 37 nm. X-ray diffraction analysis Ag–ZnO composite NPs displayed existence of two mixed sets of diffraction peaks, i.e. both Ag and ZnO, whereas AgNPs exhibited face-centred cubic structures of metallic Ag. Scanning electron microscope (EM) and transmission EM analyses of Ag–ZnO composite NPs revealed the morphology to be monodispersed hexagonal and quasi-hexagonal NPs with distribution of particle size of 20–40 nm. Furthermore, the authors investigated the wound-healing properties of Ag–ZnO composite NPs in an animal model and found that rapid healing within 10 days when compared with pure AgNPs and standard drug dermazin.