The antibacterial properties of nanoparticles are of particular interest because of their potential to serve as an alternative therapy to combat antimicrobial resistance. Metal nanoparticles such as silver, copper, iron, and zinc nanoparticles have been investigated for their antibacterial properties. In this project, nanoparticles were synthesized with the surface stabilizing agents cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and viable plate count assays were used to determine effective doses of nanoparticles treatment against 10 different environmnetally relevant bacterial strains (e.g., Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Sphingobacterium multivorum). Results show that CTAB stabilized nanoparticles were more effective antibacterial agents than PVP stabilized nanoparticles, with MIC values in a range of 0.003 mM – 0.25 mM for CTAB stabilized metal nanoparticles and 0.25 mM – 2 mM for PVP stabilized metal nanoparticles. The recorded MIC and MBC values of the surface stabilized metal nanoparticles show that they can serve as effective antibacterial agents at low doses. There was an observed synergistic effect of the interaction of the stabilizing agent with metal composition which boosted the antibacterial efficacy of nanoparticle.

Engineering principles for the design of antibacterial nanoparticles

ACS Spring 2022

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