Originally Posted by
DiegoFrogs
Do the NWs present some advantage over other colloids of silver in this application?
Curious since I worked as a process engineer manufacturing electronics, and actually produced and coated AgNWs at an industrial scale in a previous job. I was mostly interested in the electrical and optical properties, and only delved into the biological stuff in so much as "is this bad for me?" I also worked a bit with other semiconducting and metallic colloids, and nearly landed a job back home near my family working with silver once again, but my industry is in a crisis so most opportunity has evaporated in recent months.
Actually, yes! If the wires lie vertically along a rod-shaped bacterium the activity is enhanced versus other AgNPs! They do indeed have interesting optical and electrical character as well.
In my opinion, almost nothing is really known about how silver directly kills bacterial cells.