Preparation and antibacterial property of silver decorated carbon microspheres

Carbon microspheres (CMSs) were prepared by glucose hydrothermal method. The effects of glucose concentration and reaction time on the size and morphology of CMSs were studied. CMSs with surface area of 642.5 m2/g and pore size of 0.8 nm were exploited to design hybrid material of CMSs with Ag decoration by radio frequency plasma (RF plasma). A series of investigations using X-ray diffraction, UV-vis spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy was carried out to characterize the Ag decorated CMSs. RF plasma was employed to reduce Ag+ ions to metallic nano-particles with the particle size of 10-20 nm and form a clean metal-support (Ag-CMSs) interface. The mechanism for the structure formation of Ag decorated CMSs was discussed. Plasma produced Ag/CMSs showed antibacterial property and proved suitable for potential biological and environmental applications.