Silver nanoparticles incorporated chitosan/calcium pyrophosphate hybrid microflowers for antibacterial applications

In this work, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were incorporated into the flower-like hierarchical chitosan/calcium pyrophosphate hybrid microflowers (CS-CaP) via an in situ reduce process by polydopamine (PDA). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation, Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed the formation of Ag NPs on the petals of CS/CaP (Ag@CS/CaP). Since the hierarchical structure of Ag@CS/CaP facilitates the contact of Ag NPs with bacteria, results of the antibacterial test and cell culture showed that the Ag@CS-CaP has efficient antibacterial properties to both E. coli and S. aureus bacteria without causing cytotoxicity. These results demonstrate the Ag@CS-CaP has the potential capacity for biomedical applications.