Facile carbon–silver nanocomposites based on polysaccharide-derived carbon dots for antibacterial applications

Abstract

Bacterial infections pose a large threat to human health, and it is necessary to look for various strategies for inhibiting the growth of pathogenic bacteria. Silver-based nanomaterials have become good candidates for designing antibacterial agents. Different from the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using an additional ligand and reducing agent, our simpler strategy involves constructing carbon–silver nanocomposites (C–Ag NCs) using polysaccharide-derived CDs as a reductant and stabilizer. The facile C–Ag NCs possessed superior antibacterial activity with a minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 1.3 μg mL⁻¹ Ag after incubation for 6 h, and could kill a wide range of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Vibrio parahemolyticus, and Shigella castellani. We believe that the simple hybrid C–Ag NCs provide an alternative strategy for the design of antimicrobial agents in biomedicine and food industry.