Development of silk fibers decorated with the in situ synthesized silver and gold nanoparticles: antimicrobial activity and creatinine adsorption capacity

Abstract

In this study, to impart silk fibers with excellent coloration, UV-protection, antimicrobial activity, as well as creatinine adsorption from artificial blood, silk fibers were designed via facile fabrication approach. These diverse properties were introduced by in-situ incorporation of nanoparticles based on either silver (AgNPs) or gold (AuNPs) as well as bimetallic (Ag-AuNPs) onto silk fibers using an eco-friendly, effective one-pot process. The proteins present in the silk fibers acted as a redox-active bio-template to reduce the Ag(I) and Au(III) ions to their zero-valent state with simultaneous deposition of the generated nanoparticles onto the silk fiber surfaces. The obtained results clearly indicated that both AgNPs and AuNPs colored the silk fibers with brown and red color, respectively, thereby affirming the deposition of these metallic NPs onto and inside the surface of silk fibers as S/Ag-AuNPs. Significantly, the prepared colored silk fibers exhibited excellent antimicrobial and cytotoxicity activities against different pathogenic microbes as well as very good UV protection properties. Moreover, the results attested that the as prepared S/AgNPs and S/AuNPs fibers have good adsorption potential with maximal adsorption capacity of creatinine in artificial blood was found to be 94.2mg/g for S/AuNPs sample, which is 1.55 times greater than that of silk fibers.