Facile one-pot synthesis of chitosan oligosaccharide/silver nanocomposites and their antimicrobial properties

• Low molecular COS was successfully used for COS/silver nanocomposites synthesis.
• The method is facile, economic and environmentally benign.
• The synthesized nanocomposites were extremely stable for more than 2 months.
• The COS/silver nanocomposites exhibited stronger antibacterial activity than COS.

In this study, we demonstrate a facile approach to prepare chitosan oligosaccharide (COS)/silver nanocomposites by use of vitamin C and low molecular COS as reducing agent and capping agent. Morphology and crystalline structure of the COS/silver nanocomposites were characterized. The possible biochemical mechanism leading to the formation of the nanocomposites was investigated by FTIR. The synthesized COS/silver nanocomposites exhibited stronger antibacterial activity than the COS.

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