Abstract
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 20min, the hybrid material could be obtained in a one-pot reaction. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) revealed that the polycrystalline NPs of 200–500nm were well distributed in the regenerated cellulose matrix. The average Cu crystallite size was of the order of 20nm, 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 72h. 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.
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•A facile one-pot synthesis of cellulose-templated copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) is demonstrated.•Cu NPs were formed in situ by adsorption of copper ions onto cellulose followed reduction.•Nucleation of Cu crystallites with size of 20nm into Cu NPs in the size range of 200–500nm was detected.•The prepared cellulose-Cu NP hybrid material displayed strong antibacterial properties.