RT Journal Article
T1 On the Ability of Low Molecular Weight Chitosan Enzymatically Depolymerized to Produce and Stabilize Silver Nanoparticles
A1 Aranaz Corral, Inmaculada
A1 Castro, Carolina
A1 Heras Caballero, Ángeles María
A1 Acosta Contreras, Florentina Niuris
AB Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are of great interest due to their antimicrobial, optical and catalytical properties. Green synthesis of AgNPs is fundamental for some applications such as biomedicine and catalysis. Natural polymers, such as chitosan, have been proposed as reducing and stabilizing agents in the green synthesis of AgNPs. Physico-chemical properties of chitosan have a great impact on its technological and biological properties. In this paper, we explore the effect of chitosan molecular weight (Mw) on the thermal AgNPs production using two sample sets of low Mw chitosans (F1 > 30 kDa, F2: 30–10 kDa and F3: 10–5 kDa) produced by enzymatic depolymerization of a parent chitosan with chitosanase and lysozyme. Both polymer sets were able to effectively reduce Ag+ to Ag0 as the presence of the silver surface plasmon resonance (SRP) demonstrated. However, the ability to stabilize the nanoparticles depended not only on the Mw of the polymer but particularly on the polymer pattern which was determined by the enzyme used to depolymerize the parent chitosan. Low Mw chitosan samples produced by lysozyme were more effective than those produced by chitosanase to stabilize the AgNPs and smaller and less polydisperse nanoparticles were visualized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). With some polymer sets, more than 80% of the AgNPs produced were lower than 10 nm which correspond to quantum dots. The preparation method described in this paper is general and therefore, it may be extended to other noble metals, such as palladium, gold or platinum.
PB MDPI
SN 2313-7673
YR 2018
FD 2018-08-13
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/12657
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/12657
LA eng
NO Aranaz Corral, I., Castro, C., Heras Caballero, Á: M. & Acosta Contreras, F. N. «On the Ability of Low Molecular Weight Chitosan Enzymatically Depolymerized to Produce and Stabilize Silver Nanoparticles». Biomimetics, vol. 3, n.o 3, agosto de 2018, p. 21. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics3030021.
NO Ministerio de Economía, Comercio y Empresa (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 29 jun 2025