antibacterial activity of mesoporous silica nanofibers

In this research, the fabrication of mcm-41 mesoporous material nanofibers by an electrospinning technique was performed. the mcm-41 nanofibers (mcm-41 nfs) as a novel host on the incorporation of silver has been studied in [ag(nh3)2]no3 precursor solution through the heat-treatment process. the formation of silver-loaded mcm-41 nfs at various calcinating temperatures were also studied. the silver-containing materials (ag/mcm-41 nfs) were characterized using fourier transform infrared (ft-ir) spectroscopy, powder x-ray diffraction (xrd), scanning electron microscopy (sem), ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (uv-vis drs), and transmission electron microscopy (tem). the results indicated that both ag and ag2o nanoparticles (nps) were loaded in mcm-41 nfs at different calcinating temperature. silver compounds with a diameter of 10−15 nm were highly dispersed in the framework of mesoporous silica nanofibers. the results indicated that ag loading contents on the mcm-41nfs were 10.53 wt%. these ag/mcm-41 nfs possess an enhanced antibacterial effective against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria by preventing the aggregation of silver nps and continuously releasing silver ions. in general, the silver-containing materials with more ag2o nps demonstrated an excellent antibacterial activity. the minimum inhibitory concentrations (mic) obtained 30 and 60 μg/ml for the silver-containing mcm-41 nfs with more ag2o nps against e. coli and s. aureus, respectively. mcm-41 type nanofibers play an important role in the antibacterial activity of nanocomposites.