Composite material based on polymer fibers/Ag NPs: A design of new functional material for antibacterial applications

Abstract

This thesis establishes preparation of a material combining a polymer nanofibrous matrix with silver nanoparticles. Several forms of silver nanoparticles were prepared and the initial experiment was performed using diatoms algae whose siliceous shells provided active centers for Ag nanoparticle reduction and stabilization. The silver nanoparticles were then prepared by the following green chemistry inspired approaches: 1) biosynthesis using Tilia sp. biomass leachates from different harvest locations, and 2) synthesis using pure gallic acid. The biomasses provided different levels of phytochemicals responsible for nanoparticle synthesis and different shapes and sizes of resultant crystalline nanoparticles. These findings were an inspiration to synthesize silver nanoparticles and silver nanowire like structures with gallic acid at different concentrations. Moreover, this synthesis was temperature dependent. The gallic acid acted as a reducing and stabilizing agent in the direct synthesis of silver nano-objects on the polycaprolactone polylactide polymer fibers. Finally, the polymer material with fixed silver nano-objects passed cytotoxicity and antibacterial testing and confirmed that overall efficiency depended on the amount of silver applied.