Silver nanoshells as tri-mode bactericidal agents integrating long term antibacterial, photohyperthermia and triggered Ag+ release capabilities

Novel polymer-silver hybrid core-shell nanoparticles (SNSs) which showed long term bacteriostatic, photohyperthermia induced bactericidal and triggered Ag+ release abilities were reported. Both gram-negative (GN) and gram-positive (GP) bacteria can be effectively killed by photothermolysis therapy. The Ag+ release triggered by illumination provides a sustained release of Ag+, which offers long term antibacterial ability under normal conditions.