Nanocomposite Film Containing Fibrous Cellulose Scaffold and Ag/TiO2 Nanoparticles and Its Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

Cellulose is a natural polymer that is widely used in daily life, but it is susceptible to microorganism growth. In this study, a simple sol–gel technique was utilized to incorporate the cellulose scaffold with Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles. The morphology and crystal structure of the as-prepared Ag/TiO2/cellulose composite film were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. Antibacterial tests involving the use of Escherichia coli (E. coli) were carried out under dark and UV-light conditions to evaluate the efficiency of the Ag/TiO2/cellulose composite film in comparison with pristine cellulose paper and TiO2/cellulose composite film. The results indicated that the antibacterial activity of the Ag/TiO2/cellulose composite film outperformed all other samples, where the Ag content of 0.030 wt% could inhibit more than 99% of E. coli. This study suggests that finely dispersed nanocale Ag/TiO2 particles in the cellulose scaffold were effective at slowing down bacterial growth, and the mechanisms of this are also discussed.

Recent progress on Ag/TiO2 photocatalysts: photocatalytic and bactericidal behaviors

“…Despite all merits previously presented, photocatalytic water treatment, assisted by nanosized nanoparticles, shows some drawbacks that limit its practical applications. In fact, the difficulty of separation and recovery of Ag/TiO 2 nanoparticles from aqueous solutions during the photocatalytic process, in addition to the difficulty to apply on continuous flow systems pushed many researchers to immobilize silver-doped TiO 2 nanoparticles on different materials such as carbonaceous nanomaterials (Chen et al 2014;Lee et al 2015;Noreen et al 2019), magnetic materials (Tedsree et al 2017;Mehrvar 2018;Scott et al 2019), polymers, and biopolymers materials (Singh et al 2014;Rtimi et al 2015;Santhosh and Natarajan 2015;Jbeli et al 2018;Li et al 2018b;Haghighat et al 2019). This section aims to present the different supports used to overcome the problems related to the recovery of the Ag/TiO 2 nanoparticles after the photocatalysis process.…”

“…Biodegradable polymers seem to be a good option for immobilizing Ag/TiO 2 nanoparticles, their unique structure, renewability, biodegradability, abundance, and low-cost make them a source of material with attractive performances (Jawaid et al 2016;Olivera et al 2016). An eco-friendly composite based on silver, titanium dioxide, and cellulose scaffold, with different molar ratios of silver were prepared via the combination of both sol-gel and dip-coating processes at room temperature for Escherichia coli (E. coli) inhibition (Li et al 2018b). Silver-doped TiO 2 , with diameters varying from 30 and 50 nm, were uniformly immobilized over the cellulose surface without agglomerations (Fig.…”

Boosting of Antibacterial Performance of Cellulose Based Paper Sheet via TiO2 Nanoparticles

“…The investigation of antibacterial properties of TiO 2 /cellulose have been studied. For example, Li et al [ 15 ] have prepared the cellulose filter paper modified with TiO 2 by immersing in TiO 2 sol and further operations. They have tested the antibacterial activity of such materials and found out that TiO 2 /cellulose composite films have little antibacterial effects under either of the dark or UV conditions.…”

Light-Activated Heterostructured Nanomaterials for Antibacterial Applications

“…However, the application of cellulose has been limited, due to its susceptibility to microorganism growth. In recent advancements, a simple sol-gel approach has been used to conjugate the cellulose scaffold with Ag/TiO 2 nanoparticles (Ag/TiO 2 /cellulose) against bacteria ( Figure 3) [81]. The antibacterial activities of nanocomposite film of Ag/TiO 2 /cellulose, film of pristine cellulose and nanocomposite film of TiO 2 /cellulose have been investigated with E. coli with and without UV light irradiation.…”

“…Schematic illustration of preparation of the nanocomposite film of Ag/TiO 2 /cellulose and its antibacterial mechanism. Reproduced with permission from ref [81]…”