# High efficiency of antibacterial activity-based Zn-Co@BTC MOF against Bacillus bacterial cells

## TL;DR

A new metal-organic framework called Zn-Co@BTC was created and shown to strongly inhibit the growth of Bacillus bacteria, making it a promising antibacterial material for biomedical use.

## Contribution

The novel Zn-Co@BTC MOF demonstrates high antibacterial efficiency against Bacillus cereus with complete growth inhibition at 800 mg/L.

## Key findings

- Zn-Co@BTC MOF achieved 99.9% bacterial growth inhibition at 600 mg/L.
- Complete inhibition (100%) was observed at 800 mg/L against Bacillus cereus.
- The material showed high thermal stability and a large surface area.

## Abstract

In this work, Zn-Co@BTC was synthesized under environmentally friendly, economical, and green conditions. It was prepared by the solvothermal method using zinc nitrate hexahydrate and cobalt nitrate hexahydrate as the metals, with benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (BTC) as the ligand. The formation of Zn-Co@BTC MOF was confirmed by Ultraviolet–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and Transmission electron microscopy. It exhibited high thermal stability, a large surface area, and strong antibacterial activity. The antibacterial activity was evaluated against the Bacillus cereus strain identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing using optical density measurements and the cut plug method. The results showed remarkable antibacterial activity, achieving near-complete bacterial growth inhibition (99.9%) at 600 mg/L and complete inhibition (100%) at a concentration of 800 mg/L. These findings support the potential use of Zn-Co@BTC MOF as an antibacterial agent in biomedical applications.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-42070-5.