Compared with other inorganic antibacterial agents, magnesium oxide (MgO) nanopowders exhibit a unique antibacterial mechanism and various advantages in applications, having attracted extensive attention. In this study, MgO nanopowders doped with different ions (Li+, Zn2+ and Ti4+) were synthesized by a sol-gel method, respectively. The structures and morphologies of the as-obtained precursors and nanopowders were characterized and confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The influence of three metal ions doping on the antibacterial properties of MgO nanopowders was also investigated by their bactericidal activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli, ATCC 25922) using the broth microdilution method and the agar method. The results show that Li-doped MgO exhibits better antibacterial activity, Zn-doped and Ti-doped MgO display poorer antibacterial activity than pure MgO. It can be concluded that the influence of different ions doping on the antibacterial properties of MgO mainly lies on oxygen vacancies and basicity of nanopowders. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.