Cellulose nanocrystal assisted trace silver nitrate to synthesize green silver nanocomposites with antibacterial activity.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are used for applications ranging from chemical catalysis to environmental remediation, and generation of smart electronics and biological medicine such as antibacterial agents. To reduce the synthesis cost of AgNPs and environmental pollution, microwave-assisted generation of AgNPs on the CNC surface (AgNPs@CNC) has been found to be useful, because microwave reaction has the advantages of simple reaction conditions, short reaction time and high reaction efficiency. The silver ions (Ag+) could be added to the CNC suspension and placed in the microwave reactor for a few minutes to produce AgNPs. AgNP generation was affected by factors such as the concentrations of Ag+ and CNC, and the power of the microwave, as well as the time of reaction. In this study, we used trace amounts of AgNO3 to rapidly synthesize AgNPs using a green microwave-based method instead of Tollen's reagent, and the antibacterial activity of the T1 sample showed that only using 0.03 mM (∼0.01 wt%) AgNO3 to synthesize AgNPs@CNC could achieve good antibacterial properties.