Study of the antifungal activity of materials containing coal from disused batteries

Both alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries have as their main components zinc and carbon mixed with other oxides, in their internal fill. In this work, the silica synthesis was carried out using the sol-gel method from the tetraethylorthosilicate precursor and the ammonium hydroxide catalyst, carbon from the recycling of disused batteries was added in 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 C % (w/w), respectively.

This support was functionalized by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane in a 1: 1 ratio and subsequently it was impregnated by the incipient wetness with silver nitrate, resulting in 1 and 2% Ag (w/v) adsorbed. These solids were characterized by SBET, DRX, potentiometric titration, SEM-EDX and TEM techniques. The antifungal activity of the solids was assessed against the fungi Chaetomium globosum, Aspergillus sp. and Cladosporium sp. by plaque inhibition test.