Issue 12, 2011
From the journal:

Nanoscale

Enhanced antibacterial activity of bimetallic gold-silver core–shell nanoparticles at low silver concentration†

Madhuchanda Banerjee,a   Shilpa Sharma,a   Arun Chattopadhyay*ab  and  Siddhartha Sankar Ghosh*ac  

* Corresponding authors

a Centre for Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India
E-mail: arun@iitg.ernet.in, sghosh@iitg.ernet.in
Fax: +91 361 258 2349
Tel: +91 361 258 2304

b Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India

c Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India

Abstract

Herein we report the development of bimetallic Au@Ag core–shell nanoparticles (NPs) where gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) served as the seeds for continuous deposition of silver atoms on its surface. The core–shell structure and morphology were examined by UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The core–shell NPs showed antibacterial activity against both Gram negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram positive (Enterococcus faecalis and Pediococcus acidilactici) bacteria at low concentration of silver present in the shell, with more efficacy against Gram negative bacteria. TEM and flow cytometric studies showed that the core–shell NPs attached to the bacterial surface and caused membrane damage leading to cell death. The enhanced antibacterial properties of Au@Ag core–shell NPs was possibly due to the more active silver atoms in the shell surrounding gold core due to high surface free energy of the surface Ag atoms owing to shell thinness in the bimetallic NP structure.

Graphical abstract: Enhanced antibacterial activity of bimetallic gold-silver core–shell nanoparticles at low silver concentration

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C1NR10703H
Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Jun 2011
Accepted
10 Sep 2011
First published
04 Nov 2011

Nanoscale, 2011,3, 5120-5125

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Enhanced antibacterial activity of bimetallic gold-silver core–shell nanoparticles at low silver concentration

M. Banerjee, S. Sharma, A. Chattopadhyay and S. S. Ghosh, Nanoscale, 2011, 3, 5120 DOI: 10.1039/C1NR10703H

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