Antibacterial behavior of diamond nanoparticles against Escherichia coli

In this study, we investigated the potential antibacterial properties of nanocrystalline diamond. In particular, we tested the effect of diamond nanoparticles (DNPs) on growth of the model gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli on solid, nutrient-rich growth medium. We found that the presence of DNPs on agar plates significantly reduced the colony forming ability of E. coli. The antibacterial effect occurred in a concentration dependent manner and was conditional on the specific ratio of DNPs to the number of bacterial cells. (C) 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim