Assessment of catalytic and antibacterial activity of biocompatible agar supported ZnS/CuFe2O4 magnetic nanotubes

The tubular magnetic agar supported ZnS/CuFe₂O₄ nanocomposite was fabricated via a simple procedure. Next, various properties of this nanocomposite were studied by employing multiple characterization techniques including FT-IR, EDX, SEM, TEM,VSM, XRD, and TGA. Then, the catalytic and antibacterial applications were evaluated for the fabricated nanocomposite. Based on the experimental result, the nanocomposite showed excellent catalytic activity to promote the multicomponent reaction between ethyl acetoacetate, hydrazine hydrate, aromatic aldehydes, and malononitrile to synthesize a variety of dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole derivatives with high yields (89–95%) in acceptable reaction times (20–40 min) under mild reaction conditions. It can be efficiently recycled and re-work in six consequent runs without notable reduction in catalytic productiveness. Furthermore, its antibacterial activity was assessed against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria by the agar diffusion and plate-count methods. These results indicate that the width of the inhibition zone around the S. aureus (G⁺ bacterium) is more than that of E. coli (G⁻ bacterium). Moreover, the agar supported ZnS/CuFe₂O₄ nanocomposite exhibited strong prevention of the bacterial colonies’ growth.