Carbohydrate Polymers 89 (2012) 1–6 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Carbohydrate Polymers jo u rn al hom epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/carbpol Investigation of silver nanoparticles synthesis using aminated -cyclodextrin A. Abou-Okeil ∗ , A. Amr, F.A. Abdel-Mohdy Textile Research Division, National Research Center, P.O. Box 12622, Cairo, Egypt a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 7 December 2011 Received in revised form 31 December 2011 Accepted 16 January 2012 Available online 2 February 2012 Keywords: Nanotechnology Silver nanoparticles -Cyclodextrin a b s t r a c t Aminated -cyclodextrin was prepared through the reaction of 2-chloroethylamine with -cyclodextrin. The preparation was carried out under different conditions (time, temperature, concentration of NaOH, and concentration of 2-chloroethylamine). The aminated -cyclodextrin was used as reducing and sta- bilizing agent for the preparation of silver nanoparticles from AgNO 3 . Factors (pH, temperature, time, extent of amination and concentration of aminated -cyclodextrin) affecting the preparation of silver nanoparticles were studied. The prepared silver nanoparticles were evaluated by UV–visible spectral analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results obtained indicate that the optimum conditions for preparation of silver nanoparticles with size ranged from 1 to 9 nm could be produced using 0.6 g -cyclodextrin derivative, 0.1 M AgNO 3 at pH 12, 70 ◦ C for 20 min. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction According to environmental restrictions, a continuous demand for biodegradable materials for industrial application is very impor- tant. Cyclodextrins and their derivatives constitute a group of chemicals belonging to such type of materials (Buschmann, Knittel, & Schollmeyer, 1990; Knittel, Buschmann, & Schollmeyer, 1991). Cyclodextrins are oligosaccharides produced by Bacillus macerans during the enzymatic degradation of starch and related compounds (Fouda, 2005; Huang & Tonell, 1998). The first reports of the naturally occurring cyclodextrins (CDs) appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth (Easton & Lincoln, 1999). Since discovery of cyclodextrin an investiga- tions of CD chemistry have shown an amazing increase (Bender, & Komiyama, 1978; Easton & Lincoln, 1999; Huang & Tonell, 1998). Cyclodextrins are cyclic (-1,4)-linked oligosaccharides of -gluco-pyranose containing a relatively hydrophobic central cav- ity and hydrophilic outer surface. Cyclodextrins are cone shaped molecules. The primary hydroxyl groups are located on the narrow side of the cone while the secondary hydroxyl groups are located on the wider edge. This special conformation of the molecules results in external hydrophilicity and internal hydrophobicity. There are 3 types of cyclodextrins, -, -, and -cyclodextrin, which consist of six, seven and eight glucopyranose units respec- tively (Fig. 1). The common CDs differ not only in their diameter, related to the number of glucopyranose units, but also in their water solubility. The water solubility of - to - to -CD at 25 ◦ C is 14.5, 1.85 and 23.2 g/100 ml respectively. Thus, -CD, which ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 2 33335939; fax: +20 2 33322424. E-mail address: aokeil2004@yahoo.com (A. Abou-Okeil). for many years has been the most easily available and commonly employed, is the least water-soluble of the series. However, many other derivatives have been prepared and present high water sol- ubility (Fouda, 2005). The most important characteristics of CDs and their derivatives are their ability to include various or part of molecules inside their hydrophobic cavity, leading to an inclusion complex exhibiting new physicochemical and biological properties (Hirayama & Uekama, 1987). One of the most important applica- tion of CDs is in the field of pharmaceutical (wound healing, drug delivery, etc.) (Stella & Rajewski, 1997; Uekama, Hirayama, & Irie, 1998). CDs can play a major role in environmental science in terms of removal highly toxic substances from industrial effluent by inclu- sion complex formation. Textile finishing is another area in which CDs are increasingly attracting attention (Abou-Okeil & El-shafie, 2011; Denter, Buschmann, Knittel, & Schollmeyer, 1997). Today nano-scale materials are considered one of the interest- ing fundamental sciences. The interest in nanoparticles of these typical sizes is due to the fact that the magnetic, optical and elec- tronic behaviors of bulk materials can be modified when their size approaches the nanometer scale (one nanometer is 10 -9 of a meter). The properties of materials can be different on nano- scale for two main reasons: first, nano-materials have, relatively, a larger surface area than the same mass of material, this can be make materials more chemically reactive, and the second reason, is below 50 nm, the laws of classical physics different from these of the same material at a larger scale (Dowling, 2004). Nano-materials have wide-ranging applications including physics, chemistry, elec- tronics, optics, material science, the biomedical sciences and textile finishing. Ag nanoparticles can be synthesized using various methods: chemical, electrochemical (Vorobyova, Lesnikovich, & Sobal, 1999), -radiation (Choi, Zhang, Gopalan, Lee, & Kang, 2005) 0144-8617/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2012.01.038