Abstract
The concern associated with hydroxyapatite (HA) in dental applications is biofilm formation on the surface, causing tooth decay. Combining HA with antibacterial agents has great potential to avert biofilm formation and increase its antibacterial activity. The novelty of this study lies in the systematic optimization of HA/ZnO/GO nanocomposite synthesis using the Taguchi L9 orthogonal array method (3 factors: HA, GO, and ZnO). Unlike previous HA/GO/ZnO studies focused solely on compositional or biological evaluations, this approach identifies the optimal synthesis parameters statistically, attaining enhanced antibacterial performance. The structural arrangement of the nanocomposite was examined using XRD, TEM, and FESEM. Moreover, the successful interfacial interaction between HA, ZnO, and GO were verified in the nanocomposite through FTIR, TEM, and EDX analyses. The highest effective antibacterial activity was observed for the nanocomposite synthesised under experiment 3 (20.08 mg/mL HA, 0.03 mg/mL GO, and 4.88 mg/mL ZnO), in which the HA/ZnO/GO nanocomposite showed a significantly lower bacterial survival rate of 0.61 log₁₀ CFU/mL than that of 0.97 log₁₀ CFU/mL for pure HA. The results demonstrated the effective antibacterial properties of the nanocomposite, suggesting that the HA/ZnO/GO nanocomposite can be used in oral health applications.