Silver nanoparticles encaged in a nanoporous chitosan/polyacrylamide interpenetrating polymer network (Ag@IPN) were synthesized and characterized by various techniques such as Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and ICP-AES. This material exhibits good catalytic activity for the oxidant free dehydrogenation of alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds. The reusability of Ag@IPN for this reaction was compared with a chitosan–silver complex under the same reaction conditions. It was found that encaging silver nanoparticles in interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) has improved their stability by avoiding leaching and aggregation.