Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles for Antibacterial Coatings and Advanced Biomedical Surface Engineering

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have gained huge popularity in biomedical engineering for their outstanding antibacterial activity and their potential applications on advanced modification of the surface. The traditional synthesis routes, however, tend to be time consuming, require high energy consumption, and are not well suited for control of nanoparticle morphology. In this study, silver nanoparticles are synthesized by using the fast and efficient microwave-assisted method and their performance is tested in terms of antibacterial coatings and biomedical surface engineering applications. The synthesis of AgNPs was carried out under plasma stabilization conditions by controlled microwave irradiation process, followed by deposition onto biocompatible substrates by coating. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by the following methods: UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Energy dispersed X-ray analysis (EDX). The antibacterial activity and inhibition of biofilm formation against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were assessed. The synthesized AgNPs showed significant plasmon resonance behavior, high-crystallinity, good uniformity of the AgNPs, and good dispersibility. Antibacterial activity was more effective on AgNP-coated surfaces, the reduction of the biofilms was significant and the durability of the coating in highly demanding biomedical surface engineering and antimicrobial coating application was  promising.