Facile fabrication of rice husk based silicon dioxide nanospheres loaded with silver nanoparticles as a rice antibacterial agent

Bacterial leaf blight of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is a major disease of rice, leading to reduction in production by 10-50%. In order to control this disease, various chemical bactericides have been used. Wide and prolonged application of chemical bactericides resulted in the resistant strain of Xoo that was isolated from rice. To address this problem, we were searching for an environmentally friendly alternative to the commonly used chemical bactericides. In this work, we demonstrate that silicon dioxide nanospheres loaded with silver nanoparticles (SiO2-Ag) can be prepared by using rice husk as base material precursor. The results of the antibacterial tests showed that SiO2-Ag composites displayed antibacterial activity against Xoo. At cellular level, the cell wall/membrane was damaged and intercellular contents were leaked out by slow-releasing of silver ions from SiO2-Ag composites. At molecular level, this composite induced reactive oxygen species production and inhibited DNA replication. Based on the results above, we proposed the potential antibacterial mechanism of SiO2-Ag composites. Moreover, the cytotoxicity assay indicated that the composites showed mild toxicity with rice cells. Thus, this work provided a new strategy to develop biocide derived from residual biomass.