Polymeric microspheres containing silver nanoparticles as a bactericidal agent for water disinfection.

A facile methodology has been developed by anchoring silver nanoparticles on to the macroporous methacrylic acid copolymer beads for disinfection of water in this study. Methacrylic acid copolymer beads are prepared by suspension polymerization technique. Silver nanoparticles formed on these copolymer beads by chemical reduction method are stable and are not washed away by water washing. Their stability is due to the interaction of nanoparticles with the carboxylic functional group on the copolymer beads. Copolymer beads containing silver nanoparticles are tested for their antibacterial activity against two gram positive and two gram negative bacteria. Antibacterial activity tested shows that they can be a potent biocidal material for water disinfection as they are highly effective against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria tested. The silver nanoparticles bound copolymer beads performed efficiently in bringing down the bacterial count to zero for all the strains tested except spore forming Bacillus subtilis which showed 99.9% reduction. There is no bacterial adsorption/adhesion on the copolymer beads containing silver nanoparticles proving them as effective water disinfectant.