One-pot synthesis of cellulose-templated copper nanoparticles with antibacterial properties

We report a facile in situ synthesis of spherical copper nanoparticles (NPs) templated by a gelled cellulose II matrix under alkaline aqueous reaction conditions. In under 20 min, the hybrid material could be obtained in a one-pot reaction. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) revealed that the polycrystalline NPs of 200-500 nm were well distributed in the regenerated cellulose matrix. The average Cu crystallite size was of the order of 20 nm, as estimated from both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and FE-SEM. XRD data also indicated that the composite contained up to approximately 20% Cu2O. In suspensions containing the hybrid material, growth of Escerichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus strains was inhibited by 80% and 95%, respectively, after 72 h. The synthesis procedure offers a general approach to designing various low-cost hybrid materials of almost any shape, and the concept could be extended to utilization areas such as catalysis, functional textiles, and food packaging as well as to electronic applications.