The preparation of ag-Nanoparticle-embedded paints and their antimicrobial activity

Over the last decades silver has been engineered into nanoparticles, structures from 1 to 100 nm in size. At present day silver nanoparticles are widely used as antibacterial/antifungal agents in a diverse range of consumer products. This paper deals with the authors' research in the field of preparation and studying antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticle-embedded paints. The silver nanoparticles have been synthesized using the technique based on using cellulose fibers as reductant. For conducting microbiological tests the commercially available water paint was mixed with 200 ppm silver nanoparticles solutions in various ratios of 20:1, 50:1 and 100:1 in order to impart antimicrobial properties to the paint. To evaluate the antibacterial and fungicidal properties of Ag nanoparticles in paints we have used Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Aspergillus niger, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans cultures. The tests conducted have demonstrated that synthesized silver nanoparticles added to water paints show a pronounced antibacterial/antifungal effect, despite the fact that they tend to be agglomerated into clusters. It has been shown that larger concentrations of silver nanoparticles have a greater antibacterial/antifungal efficacy in Ag-nanoparticle-embedded paints.