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Enhancing the antibacterial efficacy of hot water treated nanostructured aluminum foil by essential oil

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Abstract

Microbial contamination is a significant issue in the food industry, often leading to foodborne illnesses. This study introduces our hot water-treated (HWT) nanostructured aluminum foil, coated with a layer of tea-tree essential oil, which works synergistically to inactivate bacteria. Our results show that this method inactivated ~ 98% of the Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis tested. This approach also offers the benefit of robustly holding oil on the foil surface due to the superoleophilicity of the nanostructured aluminum oxide layer, further increasing its efficacy. In addition, the HWT process can be extended to other forms of aluminum-based materials.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, 72204, USA

    Quinshell Smith, Nawab Ali & John Bush

  2. School of Physical Sciences, Physics Program, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, 72204, USA

    Tansel Karabacak

  3. School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, 66160, USA

    Kenneth Burnett

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  1. Quinshell Smith
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  2. Kenneth Burnett
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Correspondence to Quinshell Smith.

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Smith, Q., Burnett, K., Ali, N. et al. Enhancing the antibacterial efficacy of hot water treated nanostructured aluminum foil by essential oil. MRS Communications 13, 336–342 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-023-00349-y

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