Interaction insight of pullulan-mediated gamma-irradiated silver nanoparticle synthesis and its antibacterial activity

• Main Authors: Ali, R.R (Author), Hamzah, M.Y (Author), Kasmani, R.M (Author), Nasef, M.M (Author), Salleh, M.S.N (Author), Shameli, K. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2021
• Series: Polymers
• Subjects: Antibacterial; Anti-bacterial activity; Antibacterials; Bacteria; Crystallinity; Dosimetry; Gamma irradiation; Gamma rays; Green synthesis; Irradiation; Metal ions; Metal nanoparticles; Nanoparticle synthesis; Particle size; Particle size analysis; Property; Pullulan; Pullulans; Radiation-induced; Silver nanoparticles; Surface plasmon resonance; Synthesis (chemical); TEM images; X ray diffraction; XRD; Zeta potential
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 The production of pure silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with unique properties remains a challenge even today. In the present study, the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) from natural pullulan (PL) was carried out using a radiation-induced method. It is known that pullulan is regarded as a microbial polysaccharide, which renders it suitable to act as a reducing and stabilizing agent during the production of Ag-NPs. Pullulan-assisted synthesis under gamma irradiation was successfully developed to obtain Ag-NPs, which was characterized by UV-Vis, XRD, TEM, and Zeta potential analysis. Pullulan was used as a stabilizer and template for the growth of silver nanoparticles, while gamma radiation was modified to be selective to reduce silver ions. The formation of Ag-NPs was confirmed using UV-Vis spectra by showing a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band in the region of 410-420 nm. As observed by TEM images, it can be said that by increasing the radiation dose, the particle size decreases, resulting in a mean diameter of Ag-NPs ranging from 40.97 to 3.98 nm. The XRD analysis confirmed that silver metal structures with a face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal were present, while TEM images showed a spherical shape with smooth edges. XRD also demonstrated that increasing the dose of gamma radiation increases the crystallinity at a high purity of Ag-NPs. As examined by zeta potential, the synthesized Ag-NP/PL was negatively charged with high stability. Ag-NP/PL was then analysed for antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, and it was found that it had high antibacterial activity. It is found that the adoption of radiation doses results in a stable and green reduction process for silver nanoparticles. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.