Nanocomposite cotton gauze cloth with in situ generated silver, copper and their binary metal nanoparticles by bioreduction method

In the present work, the authors prepared nanocomposite cotton gauze cloth (NCGC) by in situ generating the nanoparticles of silver (ANPs) and copper (CuNPs) and their binary metallic nanoparticles (BMNPs) using aqueous extraction of Azadirachta indica leaves as a reducing agent. The NCGCs had roughly spherical AgNPs, CuNPs and BMNPs in the size range of 50–120 nm. The corresponding mean size of the spherical AgNPs, CuNPs and BMNPs was 94, 89 and 87 nm respectively. The participation of the hydroxyl and amino groups of the leaf extract in the generation of the metal nanoparticles in the NCGCs was established by studying the chemical interactions. All the NCGC specimens exhibited significant antibacterial activity. However, the NCGCs with BMNPs had higher antibacterial efficiency when compared to those with homo metal nanoparticles. Hence, the NCGC with generated BMNPs can be effectively used as antibacterial wound dressing material.