Water-based binary polyol process for the controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles inhibiting human and foodborne pathogenic bacteria

The polyol process is a widely used strategy for producing nanoparticles from various reducible metallic precursors; however, it requires a bulk polyol liquid reaction with additional protective agents at high temperatures. Here, we report a water-based binary polyol process using low concentrations of high-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol (100 000 g mol(−1), 2 wt%) and ethylene glycol (5 wt%). The entangled conformation of the polyethylene glycol in water and the increased number of reducing sites by the ethylene glycol cooperatively contributed to the stability and effectiveness of reduction reaction and particle growth, producing uniformly sized silver nanoparticles (15.8 ± 2.2 nm) with no additional protective agents at a mild temperature of 80 °C. The measurement of particle size throughout the reaction and the dependence of the optical density of a silver colloidal solution on the concentration of ethylene glycol revealed three stages of particle growth. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the purified silver nanoparticles against four representative human and foodborne pathogenic bacteria—S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, S. enterica, and E. coli—were 4.7, 2.3, 2.3, and 1.2 μg mL(−1), respectively.