Evaluation of chitosan salt properties in the production of AgNPs materials with antibacterial activity
Inmaculada Aranaz, Federico Navarro, M. Morri, Niuris Acosta, Luca Casettari, Ángeles Heras
Abstract
In this study, water-soluble chitosan salts (chitosan amine sulfopropyl salts) were prepared from chitosan samples with different molecular weights and deacetylation degrees. These soluble-in-water polymer salts allowed us to produce, in an eco-friendly and facile method, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with better control on size and polydispersity, even at large silver concentrations than their corresponding chitosan sample. Chitosan salt-based materials (films and scaffolds) were analyzed in terms of antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC23915 or Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853. 3D scaffolds enhanced the effect of the chitosan-AgNPs combination compared to the equivalent films.