Synthesis of silver nanoflakes on chitosan hydrogel beads and their antimicrobial potential

Abstract

The present study involves the fabrication of CH and CH-Ag hydrogel beads and the investigation of the antimicrobial properties. The beads were fabricated using a simple coacervation method. The successfully synthesized beads were characterized by UV-Vis and FTIR. The surface morphology, shape and diameter of the samples were determined by optical microscopy and SEM. The antimicrobial activities were determined against potential human pathogens including bacterial and fungal species. Our results demonstrated that beads can be utilized as potential materials for use in biomedical approaches including delivery systems and tissue engineering applications to prevent microbial contamination and to inhibit the growth of microorganisms.

Keywords:

• Chitosan
• silver
• nanoflake
• hydrogel
• antimicrobial activity