Preparation of Silver Nanoparticles from Bael (Aegle marmelos) Leaves Extract and their Doping with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Antibacterial Utility

Abstract

A green methodology was adopted for the preparation of silver nanoparticles. The leaves of Bael Tree (Aegle Marmelos) were possessed from the area of Redhills, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. From the clean and dried leaves, the Bael tree leave extract was obtained by a simple chemical process. This extract was further employed for the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles. When the extract was added into the colourless silver nitrate solution and stirred, a periodic colour change was observed indicates the formation of silver nanoparticles. Besides, Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized by a simple chemical approach using potassium persulphate as the solid oxidant. The synthesis of MWCNTs involves both the Conc. Sulphuric acid and Conc. Nitric acid were added to 99.9% pure graphite powder slowly with stirring for a period of 30 min. The solid oxidizing agent potassium persulphate was then added with stirring and the whole reaction mixture was refluxed to get the MWCNTs. The target Silver-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes were produced by thermal treatment of the reaction mixture containing silver nanoparticles and MWCNTs. The antibacterial utility of the synthesized silver-doped MWCNTs was tested on different bacterial culture using Well diffusion method. The bacterial cultures employed for the anti-bacterial study are Enterococcus faecalis (MTCC 2729) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MTCC 424). The antibacterial investigation furnished that the Silver-doped carbon nanotubes exhibit good antibacterial activity. A higher antibacterial behavior was noticed on Pseudomonas aeruginosa than Enterococcus faecalis upon acted by silver-doped MWCNTs.