TY - JOUR T1 - Antibacterial Activity of Silver/Clay/Chitosan Bionanocomposites AU - Abdul Hamid, Azizah AU - Ibrahim, Nor Azowa AU - Yunus, Wan Md Zin Wan AU - Darroudi, Majid AU - Shameli, Kamyar AU - Bin Ahmad, Mansor AU - Zargar, Mohsen JO - Research Journal of Biological Sciences VL - 4 IS - 11 SP - 1156 EP - 1161 PY - 2009 DA - 2001/08/19 SN - 1815-8846 DO - rjbsci.2009.1156.1161 UR - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=rjbsci.2009.1156.1161 KW - montmorillonite KW -bionanocomposites KW -silver nanoparticles KW -Antibacterial activity KW -chitosan KW -UV-irradiation AB - A simple synthesis of silver/montmorillonite/chitosan (Ag/MMT/Cts) Bionanocomposites (BNCs) with controllable sizes is presented. In this research, reduction process of silver cations by UV-irradiation was performed. AgNO3, MMT and chitosan were used as a silver precursor, solid support and stabilizer, respectively. The properties of Ag/MMT/Cts BNCs were studied as a function of UV-irradiation time. We found that UV-irradiation disintegrated the silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) into smaller size until a relatively stable size and size distribution were achieved. The average size, size distribution and crystalline structure of Ag-NPs were determined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD). The antibacterial activity of Ag-NPs was investigated against Gram-negative bacterium (Escherichia coli (E. coli)) and Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)) by disk diffusion method using Muller-Hinton Agar (MHA) at different sizes of Ag-NPs. All of synthesized Ag/MMT/Cts BNCs were found to have high antibacterial activity. These results showed that Ag/MMT/Cts BNCs can be useful in different biological research and biomedical applications such as surgical devices and drug delivery vehicles. ER -