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Antimicrobial Properties Of Nanorods: Killing Bacteria Via Impalement, Md. Iftekhar Hossain, Jarrod Edwards, James Tyler, John Anderson, Supriyo Bandyopadhyay

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Silver is known to possess anti-microbial properties that are of chemical origin. It is believed that either Ag atoms bind to thiol groups in bacterial enzymes or Ag+ ions enter bacterial cells and denature the DNA molecule to kill bacteria. Silver nanorods, however, may kill bacteria by another mechanism: it is possible that the sharp tips of the nanorods puncture bacterial cells and kill bacteria via impalementa physical mechanism. To test if this can indeed happen, we have compared the anti-microbial properties of silver and CdS nanorods. No significant difference is found between the two even though CdS does not …