Facile fabrication of carbonaceous nanospheres loaded with silver nanoparticles as antibacterial materials

Carbonaceous nanospheres with silver nanoparticles (CNs-Ag) composites were prepared by a facile and low cost method. Silver nanoparticles were successfully loaded onto the surface of carbonaceous nanospheres, which were examined by X-ray diffraction, UV-vis spectra, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The antibacterial properties of the CNs-Ag composites were investigated by the kinetics of bacterial growth and a disk-diffusion test. The cytotoxicity of the CNs-Ag composites was determined by MTT assay. The results suggest that the obtained CNs-Ag composites exhibit enhanced antibacterial properties and lower cytotoxicity in comparison with silver nanoparticles. The composites may be alternative antibacterial materials with mild cytotoxicity in biomedical fields.