SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATIONAND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SYNTHESIZED SILVER NANOPARTICLESUSING ALOE VERA EXTRACT AND COCONUT WATER

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized using Aloe vera leaf extract and coconut water as the reducing and stabilizing agents. Aloe vera leaf extract and coconut water were separately added to silver trioxonitrate (v) (1 mM AgNO3) solution in ratio 1:9. The solution was left for 72 hours, centrifuged and then freeze dried to obtain the particles. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR),X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Agar well diffusion method was used to test the antibacterial activity of the synthesized silver nanoparticles toward both gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus bovis) and gram negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria using streptomycin as the control.The synthesized silver nanoparticles were added to a household disinfectant and functional textiles. Antibacterial effectiveness of the disinfectant and the functional textile were tested toward Staphylococcus aureus,Streptococcus bovis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The λmax for the synthesized silver nanoparticles using Aloe vera leaf extract and coconut water were 420 nm and 411 nm respectively. FTIR analyses showed that -C≡N-, N-H (amine), N-H (amide), O-H (carboxylic acid) were the possible functional groups that were responsible for the reduction and stabilization of the nanoparticles. From the XRD analysis, the intense peaks observed at 2θvalue range from 27.9ο, 31.95ο, 45.9ο for synthesized silver nanoparticles using coconut waterand 17.1ο, 18.2ο, 27.56ο, 32.5ο, 38.2ο, 46.1οfor synthesized silver nanoparticles using Aloe vera extract indicated that the synthesized silver nanoparticles were crystalline and the average particle size was calculated to be 10.23 nm and 11.82 nm using Scherrer’s equation. The SEM analyses revealed that the synthesized silver nanoparticles were spherical and of close uniform size.