Artificial Sweeteners and Sugar Ingredients as Reducing Agent for Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

An environmentally friendly technique has been developed to produce metal nanoparticles using green synthesis methods. In this study, silver nanostructures were synthesized using different sugar substitutes and artificial sweeteners as green reducing agents in an aqueous solution at low temperature. The main ingredients (such as maltodextrin, sucrose, saccharin, and sucralose) of the artificial sweeteners acting as reducing agents were used to reduce Ag+ ions to Ag0. The pH of the solution was controlled during synthesis through the addition of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to increase the strength of the reducing agents by converting nonreducing sugars to reducing ones and consequently increasing the rate of silver nanoparticle formation. The size and morphology of the synthesized nanostructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The formation of nanostructures during the course of the reactions was investigated by UV-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy characterization of an aliquot of sample at specific intervals. The function of each artificial sweetener and corresponding ingredients as a reducing agent and capping agent was investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and mass spectrometry (MS).