In Situ Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles on Amino-Grafted Polyacrylonitrile Fiber and Its Antibacterial Activity

In this study, amino hyperbranched polymers (HBP)-grafted polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber was prepared through an amidation reaction in an autoclave. The prepared PAN-G-HBP fiber can complex Ag(+) through amino groups of amino HBP, and in a hot steaming condition, Ag(+) can be converted to Ag0 through the reducibility of HBP. PAN-G-HBP and Ag nanoparticles (NPs)-coated fibers were then characterized through FTIR, UV–VIS DRS, FE-SEM, EDS, XPS and antibacterial measurement. FTIR results confirmed HBP was grafted on the surface of PAN fiber. FE-SEM showed that after grafting with HBP, the average diameter of PAN fibers was amplified. EDS, XPS, and UV–VIS DRS method indicated that under hot steaming condition and with the reducibility of HBP, Ag NPs uniform coating on the PAN-G-HBP. Ag NPs-coated fibers exhibits excellent antibacterial property against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Even under 20 times home washing conditions, the antibacterial reduction of Ag NPs-coated PAN fiber can achieved more than 98.94%. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s11671-021-03496-0.