Development and Characterization of Curcumin Loaded Silver Nanoparticle Hydrogels for Antibacterial and Drug Delivery Applications

The present work involves the development of curcumin loaded silver hydrogel nanocomposites based on acrylamide and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propanesulfonic acid, as a template by redox co-polymerization in the presence of hydrophilic crosslinker N,N1-methylenebisacrylamide. Silver nitrate was taken as the metal precursor and sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. The formation of silver nanoparticles was monitored using UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. The developed hydrogel silver nanocomposites (HSNC) were characterized by FTIR, UV–Vis, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The curcumin loading and release characteristics were performed for different hydrogel systems. The developed HSNCs were evaluated for preliminary antibacterial applications.