Abstract
Nanotechnology is expected to open new avenues to fight and prevent disease using atomicscale tailoring of materials. Among the most promising nanomaterials with antibacterialproperties are metallic nanoparticles, which exhibit increased chemical activity due to theirlarge surface to volume ratios and crystallographic surface structure. The study ofbactericidal nanomaterials is particularly timely considering the recent increase of newresistant strains of bacteria to the most potent antibiotics. This has promoted research inthe well known activity of silver ions and silver-based compounds, including silvernanoparticles. The present work studies the effect of silver nanoparticles in the range of1–100 nm on Gram-negative bacteria using high angle annular dark field (HAADF)scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Our results indicate that thebactericidal properties of the nanoparticles are size dependent, since the only nanoparticlesthat present a direct interaction with the bacteria preferentially have a diameter of∼1–10 nm.
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