Affiliation:
1. Department of Physics, College of Science, Salahaddin University-Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
Abstract
Background:
The main objective of this work is the synthesis and evaluation of silver
nanoparticles (Ag NPs) by using pulsed laser ablation of a silver (Ag) target in deionized water
and examining their antibacterial activity.
Methods:
Colloidal solutions of silver nanoparticles were prepared with different pulsed laser
energies (620, 880, and 1000) mJ of wavelength 1064 nm and frequency 10 Hz. To determine
their structure, optical, morphology, elemental composition, and infrared spectra, the synthesized
Ag NPs were characterized using various high-throughput analytical techniques such as (UVVis)
spectroscopy, transmission electron microgram (TEM), electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, and Zeta potential.
Results:
The results show that the properties of synthesized Ag NPs depend much more on the
laser energy. The laser energy can be used to control the properties of the prepared nanoparticles.
Uniform distributions of spherical ultrasmall Ag NPs with an average size of (3) nm were
obtained suspended in deionized water, which is the most effective size for antibacterial activity.
However, the result indicated that the ablated Ag NPs were stable for 4 months in deionized
water. The antibacterial activity of the colloidal solution of synthesized Ag NPs against Gramnegative
Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria
was then examined using the agar-well diffusion method.
Conclusion:
It was found that the prepared nanoparticles exhibited strong activity against E. coli
and S. aureus bacteria growth. The average zones of inhibition of Ag NPs were found to be
about (26) mm for E. coli and (32) mm for S. aureus bacteria.
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Subject
Pharmaceutical Science,Biomedical Engineering,Medicine (miscellaneous),Bioengineering,Biotechnology