Sucrose-derived & silver-enriched carbon foams as prospective biocompatible and antimicrobial 3D scaffolds for...

The well-established antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have led to a growing interest in their implementation in nano-biotechnological applications. However, the choice of a suitable carrier is essential to ensure proper delivery, controlled release, and, consequently, favourable bio-functionality. Hereby, a sustainable method is employed to simultaneously synthesize microporous carbon materials [carbon foams (CFs)] from a polysaccharide precursor (sucrose), doped with increasing Ag wt%. The key advantage of this methodology is its ability to exploit concurrently the silver precursor (AgNO₃) as foaming and reducing agent to generate biocompatible sucrose-derived CFs (SFs) enriched with nano-dispersed elemental AgNPs (SFAgs), rendering this one-step synthesis process cost-efficient. The structural and biophysical properties of the synthesised SFAgs, including their biomedically relevant porosity and adequate mechanical properties, imply their suitability for biomedical scaffold applications where biological fluid and cells transport, cell adhesion and proliferation, are critical for tissue regeneration. Moreover, microbiological assessment has confirmed the antibacterial and antifungal efficacy of SFAgs (with inhibitory and microbicidal effects at ≥6 and 12 Ag wt%, respectively), without significantly compromising their biocompatibility. Therefore, our study proposes the SFAgs as potential antimicrobial medical scaffolds for soft tissue replacement applications.