Preparation and shape change of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) loaded on the dialdehyde cellulose by in-situ synthesis method.

With the improvement of medical and health care level in our society, the demand for antibacterial materials is increasing. In this work, we prepared the antibacterial materials by loading silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the dialdehyde cellulose (DAC) with in-situ synthesis method. DAC was prepared by pretreating cellulose fiber with sodium metaperiodate (NaIO4) to convert the hydroxyl group into aldehyde group, and then reacted with silver nitrate (AgNO3) to obtain AgNPs loaded on DAC. UV-Vis results show that the characteristic absorption peak of AgNPs at 428 nm appeared in the AgNPs-loaded-DAC. It was observed by SEM that the spherical AgNPs were distributed uniformly on the DAC surface without obvious flocculation. The color of DAC was not changed significantly, indicating that a small amount of AgNPs was loaded. In addition, sodium citrate (Na3C6H5O7) was added in the reaction of DAC and AgNO3 and its effect on the formation of AgNPs was studied. The results demonstrated that the color of DAC turned deeper and finally dark yellow with reaction time extended. When the reaction time was 60 h, the spherical AgNPs were gradually grown and transformed into triangular prism on the DAC surface. The antibacterial properties of AgNPs showed inhibition zones of 4.90 mm and 7.35 mm (60 h) against Gram-negative (E. coli) and Gram-positive (S. aureus), respectively, which increased by 40.00% and 14.85% compared with spherical AgNPs (2.5 h) obtained without Na3C6H5O7. The research of AgNPs-loaded cellulose-based materials promotes the development prospect of new nano-antibacterial materials. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10570-022-04692-6.