Facile and green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using oxidized pectin

In the current work, an alternative route for facile synthesis of nanosilver is reported. Oxidized pectin has been used as the reducing agent as well as the stabilizing agent, resulting in the formation of oxidized pectin-nanosilver (OP-NS) core sheath nanohydrogels. The effect of reaction parameters on the synthesized nanoparticles is investigated. The structural and morphological features have been analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) respectively. The crystal size of the synthesized nanosilver was calculated to be 28.76 nm. While the average size of the core sheath structure varied from 289 nm to 540 nm, the size of the silver nanoparticle entities at the core varied from 100 nm to 180 nm, with variation in reaction time. From the morphological examination, it could be seen that flower like nanostructures are formed with nanosilver in the core surrounded by a polymeric halo.