A study to examine the performance of p-aminobenzoic acid as both reducing agent for silver nitrate to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and stabilizing agent for the formed AgNPs has been done. The synthesis of AgNPs was performed by mixing silver nitrate solution as precursor with p-aminobenzoic acid solution and heating it in a boiling water bath. After the solution turned to yellow, the reaction stopped by cooling it in tap water. The formed AgNPs were analyzed by using UV-Vis spectrophotometry to evaluate their SPR absorption in wavelength range of 400–500 nm. The synthesis process was highly depend on the pH, reaction time, and mole ratios of the reactants. The synthesis only occur in pH 11 and at reaction time 30 min, the particle size of the formed AgNPs was 12 ± 7 nm. Longer reaction time increased the reducing performance of p-aminobenzoic acid in AgNPs synthesis but decreased its stabilizing performance. The increase of silver nitrate amount relative to p-aminobenzoic acid in the synthesis increased the reducing and stabilizing performance of p-aminobenzoic acid and the optimum mole ratio between AgNO3 and p-aminobenzoic acid was 5:100 (AgNO3 to p-aminobenzoic acid).

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by reduction of AgNO3 with o-hydroxybenzoic, p-hydroxybenzoic and o,p-dihydroxybenzoic acids as reducing agents was investigated. This research was conducted to determine the effect of the position and number of hydroxyl groups towards the size, shape and stability of the resulted AgNPs. Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) of AgNPs was characterized by UV/Vis spectrophotometer, the shape and size of AgNPs was determined by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The results showed that the reducing agent that has substituents in the para position (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) has the higher reduction ability than the others. AgNPs were yielded by all types of reducing agents in alkaline system. Reducing agents which have greater number of substituents (o,p-dihydroxybenzoic acid) could produce AgNPs with smaller concentration of AgNO3 than the others. AgNPs that was produced by reducing agent having substituents on the para position (p-hydroxybenzoic acid) was more stable and smaller particle size, i.e. 34 ± 1.78 nm than reducing agent that has substituent on the ortho para positions (with particle size 45 + 3.67 nm) and ortho positions (with particle size 70 ± 4.96 nm).

This paper describes the antibacterial performance of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) which have been synthesized by using p-aminobenzoic acid as reducing and stabilizing agent simultaneously. The silver nitrate with various concentrations was reacted with pH 11-adjusted p-aminobenzoic acid with a concentration of 5 × 10–3 mol L–1 for 30 min in a boiling water bath. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV-Vis spectrophotometry, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), and Particle Size Analyzer (PSA). The antibacterial performance of the synthesized AgNPs was evaluated by agar well diffusion method on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The higher silver nitrate concentration, the bigger the nanoparticle size, the wider particle size distribution, and the higher number of AgNPs formed. AgNPs synthesized from higher silver nitrate concentration had higher antibacterial activity. It is an indication that the antibacterial activity of AgNPs is mainly controlled by the silver ion concentration which influences the AgNPs particle size and existence of silver ion in the AgNPs colloidal solution

ABSTRACT

In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were successfully synthesized using p-aminosalicylic acid as a reducing and stabilizing agent simultaneously. The AgNPs was synthesized by mixing silver nitrate solution as a precursor with the pH adjusted by p-aminosalicylic acid solution and heating it in a boiling water bath. The formed AgNPs were analyzed using UV-Vis spectrophotometry to evaluate their SPR absorbance in the wavelength range of 400-500 nm. The optimum reaction time is 10 min and the optimum pH is 11. The AgNPs with the optimum synthesis condition have average size of 32.3 nm when characterized using PSA, spherical morphology when characterized using TEM, and face-centered cubic crystal when chara­cterized using XRD. The formed AgNPs had good stability for more than 2 months. The mechanism of silver ion reduction and AgNPs stabilization by p-aminosalicylic acid were also proposed in the paper based on the FTIR analysis result.