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Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles with different morphologies as well as their possible antibacterial mechanism

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Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have good antibacterial activity and their morphologies have important influence on their activity. The relationship between their bactericidal property and morphology has not been studied thoroughly. Silver triangular nanoplates have basic {111} surface, nanospheres and nanocubes mainly have {100} planes, and nanorods have {100} side surfaces and {111} end facets. It was said that {111} crystal plane of AgNPs may play a prime role in antibacterial progress. Moreover, the antibacterial activity of nanocubes is not very clear when compared to nanoparticles with other morphologies. In this paper, we studied the antibacterial activity of nanocubes and attempted to confirm whether nanoparticles with {111} crystal facet truly had stronger antibacterial activity than other nanoparticles. We prepared four kinds of AgNPs and found silver triangle nanoplates had the best antibacterial activity, while nanospheres, nanocubes and short nanorods showed similar efficacy. It may provide a reference for safe application of AgNPs with different morphologies in the medical field.

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Acknowledgments

The Project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81071254) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 10451051501004706). We would like to thank Prof. Zhengchao Tu and his research team (High Throughput Drug Screening Center, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for the antibacterial test of the nanomaterials. We also thank the Product Manager, Zemin Chen, from A&P Instrument Co. Ltd. for his assistance in the NTA measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China

    Guansong Hu, Wenxiu Jin, Qingyuan Chen, Yuchun Cai, Qiuhua Zhu & Wanzhong Zhang

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  1. Guansong Hu
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  2. Wenxiu Jin
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  3. Qingyuan Chen
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  4. Yuchun Cai
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  5. Qiuhua Zhu
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Correspondence to Qiuhua Zhu or Wanzhong Zhang.

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Hu, G., Jin, W., Chen, Q. et al. Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles with different morphologies as well as their possible antibacterial mechanism. Appl. Phys. A 122, 874 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0395-y

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