Supramolecular antimicrobial capsules assembled from polyoxometalates and chitosan

This communication describes a surfactant-based strategy towards spherical metal-organic nanohybrid structures with antimicrobial properties. We demonstrate that the growth of the Gram-negative bacterium E. coli can be dramatically affected by the presence of these hybrid materials and that this effect strictly depends on the type of contained polyoxometalate and on the size of the composites.