Publication Date
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
David Cool (Committee Member), Thomas Lockwood (Committee Member), Ioana Sizemore (Advisor)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
Nowadays, 24% of the nanomaterial-based consumer products contain silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and exploit the well-known antimicrobial properties of silver. Although AgNPs have a wide range of biomedical research and industrial applications, very little is known about their toxicity. The main goal of this study is to synthesize, characterize and manipulate Creighton colloidal AgNPs for future cytotoxicity studies. These "naked" AgNPs were free from chemically aggressive capping/stabilizing agents, reaction byproducts or organic solvents. To achieve this goal, colloidal AgNPs were successfully: a) synthesized in large volumes (5L) using a slightly modified Creighton method by the reduction of silver nitrate with sodium borohydride, b) characterized using UV-Vis absorption spectrophotometry, flame atomic absorption spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (spherical AgNPs of 1-100 nm in diameter, moderately aggregated, free of impurities and having a surface plasmon resonance at 396 nm), and c) size-selected (mostly AgNPs of 1-20 nm in diameter) and highly concentrated (5 L of 14.98 ppm down to 4 mL of 7,461.65 ppm) in a small volume of water with minimal aggregation using tangential flow ultrafiltration. These homogenous and highly concentrated, "naked" AgNPs will be used in future cytotoxicity studies that will establish the median lethal concentration (LC50) of AgNPs and will identify AgNPs suitable for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy-based biosensing applications in our laboratories.
Page Count
56
Department or Program
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Year Degree Awarded
2011
Copyright
Copyright 2011, all rights reserved. This open access ETD is published by Wright State University and OhioLINK.
