Facile synthesis of chitosan-silver nanoparticles onto linen for antibacterial activity and free-radical scavenging textiles.

Green chemistry mediated synthesis of nanoparticles is becoming an emerging area of research due to the environmental issues associated with toxic reagents involved in conventional synthesis. In this work, we present a straightforward and rapid green chemistry-based method to fabricate chitosan-based silver nanoparticles onto linen fabric in the presence of pineapple crown extract biomolecules such as sucrose, fructose and glucose. The resultant nanoparticles were studied by UV-vis, TEM, EDX, and their coating onto linen was supported by results from Scanning electron microscopy, EDX with mapping images, FTIR spectroscopy and TGA technique. This one step process yields spherical particles that are well dispersed and non-aggregated. Using chitosan polysaccharide, the colouring, antibacterial and radical scavenging activity of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) could be transferred to the linen fabric surface. Chitosan not only favours coating and stabilization of the silver ions, but synergistically with silver nanoparticles also exhibited strong antibacterial and antioxidant effects onto linen surface. The colouring properties of coated linen fabrics were measured in terms of CIELa*b* values using reflectance spectroscopy. The coated linen was also screened for their antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus, while as antioxidant activity was investigated photometrically by DPPH assay. The results demonstrate that chitosan‑silver nanoparticles can be used as safer and greener alternative to chemical functional agents currently being practiced.