Preparation and Antibacterial Performance Evaluation of Silver Loaded Chitosan Microsphere

Silver-loaded chitosan microspheres were prepared using emulsified crosslinking method.The morphology,silver content,and encapsulation efficiency of resultant microspheres were examined to investigate the effects of chitosan molecular weight,the amount of emulsifier,ratio of oil and water,and concentration of silver nitrate.The antimicrobial performance of the chitosan microspheres was evaluated by antimicrobial experiments.The results showed that chitosan with lower molecular weight can favor the formation of microspheres and obtain smaller particle size;the diameter of chitosan microspheres is 1 to 3 μm;silver content in chitosan can reach 256 mg/g;and the encapsulation efficiency obtained is 66.8%.Antimicrobial test results showed that the pure chitosan microspheres have certain antibacterial effect against E.coli and S.aureus and the silver-loaded chitosan microspheres bear excellent antibacterial effect.