deeply into the cellular periphery of the target pathogens from the outside milieu

(Deplanche et al. 2010; Gurunathan et al. 2014).

11.2.2 Morphology and Texture

Morphology or the shape of the NPs is another factor of paradigm importance, which

plays an intricate role in deciding the fate of NP in inducing a bactericidal response.

It became evident from the pertinent literature that NPs having a diverse spatial

geometry/morphology interact with the periplasmic enzymes in a different manner.

These vivid types of interactions can ultimately produce a slightly different level of

damage in bacteria (Cha et al. 2015). In context to this, a study highlighted the effect

of the variedly shaped nanoparticulate system on antibacterial properties (Yu et al.

2014). It was deciphered that the n-ZnO having a pyramidal geometry prevented the

degradation of periplasmic enzymes. The outcomes also suggested that a

photocatalytic activity was produced by these NPs and the underlying mechanism

responsible for it was found to be the obstruction and reconstruction of these

essential enzymes (Wang et al. 2017; Yu et al. 2014).

In

a

similar

approach,

Y2O3-based

prismatic

NPs

were

fabricated

by

Prasannakumar et al. (2015). The efficacy of these NPs in enticing a bactericidal

activity was assessed in two bacterial strains, viz., S. aureus and P. desmolyticum.

The study showed that the prismatic morphology of these NPs helped them to

establish a strong and direct bridging with the bacterial cell wall. This interaction

further resulted in the breakdown of the bacterial cell membrane, thus finally leading

to cell lysis and apoptosis (Prasannakumar et al. 2015). Actis et al. studied the effect

of AgNP geometry on the survival and growth rate of S. aureus (Actis et al. 2015). It

was seen that among all the fabricated AgNPs, cubical-shaped NPs showed maxi-

mum bactericidal activity due to it its high surface area to the volume ratio and

facade reactivity (Actis et al. 2015; Wang et al. 2017). Apart from the broad research

in regard to the impacts of various NP attributes on bacterial cells, few investigations

have highlighted the impact of texture. It has been witnessed that an increase in the

roughness of the NPs surface leads to a significant enhancement in the adsorption of

bacterial proteins. This escalation in the bacterial protein adsorption on the corona of

NPs results in a diminished bacterial adhesion (Ben-Sasson et al. 2013; Sukhorukova

et al. 2015).

11.2.3 Surface Charge Density

In recent studies, it has been repeatedly shown that the surface charge density also

known as zeta potential has an adverse effect on the adhesive property of the NPs.

The highly charged positive particles tend to attach them more firmly to the

negatively charged bacterial cell wall. On the other hand, in case of negatively

charged NPs, a complete paradoxical scenario is seen. This point was highlighted

in a study where two types of Mg-based NPs, viz., Mg (OH)2_MgCl and Mg

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