Synthesi̇s and characteri̇zati̇on of 2D mxene-based ZnO and CuO nanocomposi̇tes, PES(polyethersulfone) membrane and vari̇ous bi̇ologi̇cal appli̇cati̇ons

In this thesis work, six different CuO- and ZnO-based nanocomposites based on MXenes (Ti3C2Tx, Nb2CTx, V2CTx) (Ti3C2Tx/CuO, V2CTx/CuO, Nb2CTx/CuO, Ti3C2Tx/ZnO, V2CTx/ZnO and Nb2CTx/ZnO) were synthesized and their structural/morphological characteristics were revealed using FT-IR, XRD, XPS, SEM, SEM–Elemental Mapping, TEM and TEM/EDX techniques. The effects f incorporating the six different prepared nanocomposites into poly(ethersulfone) (PES) membranes on membrane fouling (antifouling) and permeability properties for bovine serum albumin (BSA) filtration were investigated. Within the experimental design, each MXene-based nanocomposite was added to the PES matrix as a dispersion at a fixed concentration of 1% to obtain composite membranes. The resulting composite membranes were evaluated using a dead-end filtration system and their performances were compared with a pure PES membrane containing no nanocomposite. Filtration results showed that nanocomposite membranes containing MXene/CuO and MXene/ZnO provided significant improvements in BSA retention efficiency. While the control (pure) PES membrane exhibited a 61.42% BSA retention rate, all composite membranes containing Ti3C2Tx/CuO, V2CTx/CuO and Nb2CTx/CuO achieved 100% BSA removal under the experimental conditions, and the MXene membranes PES-Ti3C2Tx/ZnO, PES-Nb2CTx/ZnO and V2CTx/ZnO achieved BSA removal efficiencies of 90.43%, 97.65% and 93.76%, respectively. This finding indicates that the addition of MXene/CuO and MXene/ZnO nanocomposites significantly enhances antifouling and separation performance by modifying membrane surface properties and/or pore structure. In addition, the synthesized MXene/CuO and MXene/ZnO nanocomposites were comprehensively characterized for in vitro biological activities. V2CTx/CuO and V2CTx/ZnO exhibited antioxidant activities of 90.27% and 74.05%, respectively. In antidiabetic activity measurements, V2CTx/CuO, Ti3C2Tx/CuO, Nb2CTx/ZnO and Ti3C2Tx/ZnO showed high inhibition with values of 86.42%, 96.46%, 80.70% and 82.10%, respectively. DNA interaction studies showed that all compounds caused single-strand DNA breaks at doses of 50 and 100 mg/L, and double-strand DNA breaks at a dose of 200 mg/L. Antimicrobial evaluations confirmed the compounds' effective antibacterial properties with low minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values. Moreover, V2CTx/CuO, Nb2CTx/CuO, Ti3C2Tx/CuO, V2CTx/ZnO, Nb2CTx/ZnO and Ti3C2Tx/ZnO exhibited effective microbial growth inhibition of 82.79%, 98.62%, 100%, 79.2%, 99.80% and 100%, respectively. Ti3C2Tx/CuO and Ti3C2Tx/ZnO showed the highest antibiofilm activity against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, at 92.55%, 84.22%, 97.43% and 86.92%, respectively. Additionally, the antimicrobial surfaces of PES membranes incorporated with 1% V2CTx/CuO, Nb2CTx/CuO, Ti3C2Tx/ZnO, V2CTx/ZnO, Nb2CTx/ZnO and Ti3C2Tx/ZnO were found to exhibit antibacterial capacities of 72.58%, 84.62%, 95.49%, 76.91%, 89.28% and 98.51%, respectively.