IMPACT OF PLASMA SURFACE TREATMENT ON BAMBOO CHARCOAL/SILVER NANOCOMPOSITE

Abstract

Bamboo charcoal (BC) accompanied silver (Ag) nanocomposite is synthesized through sol–gel method. The produced BC/Ag nanocomposite was surface modified by air and oxygen plasma treatments. Silver ions (Ag[Formula: see text]) will serve to improve the antibacterial activity as well as the surface area of BC. Plasma treatment has improved the surface functional groups, crystalline intensity and antibacterial activity of the prepared nanocomposite. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show that Ag nanoparticles have good agreement with BC and the particle size has a mean diameter of 20–40[Formula: see text]nm. We observe the carboxyl functional groups in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) after the oxygen plasma treatment. Moreover surface area and adsorption were analyzed by using the Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area ([Formula: see text]) and UV–Vis spectroscopy.