Preparation, characterization and cytotoxicity of schizophyllan/silver nanoparticle composite

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have been successfully prepared with a simple and "green" chemical reduction method. Triple helical schizophyllan (SPG) was used for the first time as reducing and stabilizing agents. The effect of temperature, silver nitrate/schizophyllan concentrations, pH of the reactions medium and the reaction time were investigated. The obtained schizophyllan/Ag-NP was characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, TEM, DLS, X-ray diffraction, TGA, and ATR-FTIR. The results revealed that, Ag-NPs attached to SPG through a strong non-covalent interaction, leading to good dispersion of Ag-NPs with a diameter of 6 nm within the biopolymer matrix. By increasing the pH of the reaction medium, the triple helical structure of SPG was partially broken. The SPG/AgNP nanocomposite was non-toxic for mouse fibroblast line (NIH-3T3) and human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT). © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.