Water-based binary polyol process for the controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles inhibiting human and foodborne pathogenic bacteria

Authors: Nam, Sunghyun; Park, Bosoon; Condon, Brian

Submitted to: RSC Advances
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/6/2018
Publication Date: 6/14/2018
Citation: Nam, S., Park, B., Condon, B.D. 2018. Water-based binary polyol process for the controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles inhibiting human and foodborne pathogenic bacteria. RSC Advances. 8:21937-21947. https://doi.org.10.1039/c8ra01823e.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ra01823e

Interpretive Summary: As an effort to develop a simple and low cost method to produce silver nanoparticles, a water-based polyol process was developed. The coiled structure of a long chain of polyethylene glycol in water facilitated the reduction reaction of ethylene glycol and effectively stabilized the particle growth at a mild temperature, producing uniformly-sized nanoparticles. Because of the controlled size of silver nanoparticles, their minimum concentrations to inhibit the growth of four human and foodborne pathogenic bacteria were much lower than those in the literature. Such low inhibitory concentrations make the obtained silver nanoparticles suitable for a targeted disinfecting tool in healthcare and food packaging applications.

Technical Abstract: The polyol process is a widely used strategy for producing nanoparticles from various reducible metallic precursors; however it requires a bulk polyol liquid reaction with additional protective agents at high temperatures. Here, we report a water-based binary polyol process using low concentrations of a high-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. The entangled conformation of polyethylene glycol in water and the increased reducing sites by ethylene glycol cooperatively contributed to the stability and effectiveness of reduction reaction and particle growth, producing monodispersed silver nanoparticles without any protective agents at a mild temperature. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the purified silver nanoparticles against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, S. enterica, and E. coli were 4.7, 2.3, 2.3, and 1.2 'ppm, respectively.