Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is employed in several potential applications, relying of its special chemical and physical properties in addition to its low toxicity and biocompatibility. The aim of this work is to prepare polyvinylpyrrolidone-silver (PVP-Ag) nanocomposite with high inhibiting effect on the microbial growth and low cytotoxicity. In situ prepared small stable spherical silver nanoparticles, with narrow range particle size distribution, were obtained by easy, economical and rapid chemical reduction method. Silver ions were reduced to silver nanoparticles using low amount of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) as a strong reducing agent. PVP-Ag nanocomposite was prepared using PVP as a stabilizing and capping agent. Formation of the spherical silver nanoparticles with mean particle size 5 nm was confirmed by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. The inhibiting growth effect of the nanocomposite toward Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus), Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and yeast fungus (Candida albicans) were studied. The cytotoxicity of the nanocomposite against BJ1 normal skin fibroblast cell line was tested. Results of this work presented perfect antimicrobial activity of the PVP-Ag nanocomposite towards bacteria and fungi with low cytotoxicity, which may lead to promising applications in skin wound healing.

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Several materials such as silver are used to enhance graphene oxide (GO) sheets antimicrobial activity. However, these toxic materials decrease its biocompatibility and hinder its usage in many biological applications. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop nanocomposites that can preserve both the antimicrobial activity and biocompatibility simultaneously. This work highlights the importance of functionalisation of GO sheets using Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and decorating them with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in order to enhance their antimicrobial activity and biocompatibility at the same time. The structural and morphological characterisations were performed by UV-Visible, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopic techniques, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The antimicrobial activities of the prepared samples against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans were studied. The cytotoxicity of prepared materials was tested against BJ1 normal skin fibroblasts. The results indicated that the decoration with AgNPs showed a significant increase in the antimicrobial activity of GO and FGO sheets, and functionalisation of GO sheets and GO-Ag nanocomposite with PVP improved the cell viability about 40 and 35%, respectively.

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