Polyvinyl alcohol/silver nanoparticles (PVA/AgNps) as a model for testing the biological activity of hybrid materials with included silver nanoparticles

Comparing the influence of two different stabilizers as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), as well as organosilanes as tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), allows determining the main role of the silver nanoparticles included in hybrid materials for the realization of their antimicrobial activity. The proposed two-step testing scheme first onto control strains and then onto clinical bacterial and fungal strains resistant to antibiotics allows full investigation of these properties. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.