Medical Engineering & Physics
Volume 30, Issue 8 , Pages 948-952, October 2008

Colloidal silver fabrication using the spark discharge system and its antimicrobial effect on Staphylococcus aureus

  • Der-Chi Tien

      Affiliations

    • Graduate Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Da-An District, Taipei 106, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 2771 2171x2173; fax: +886 2 2776 4017.
    • ,
  • Kuo-Hsiung Tseng

      Affiliations

    • Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Chih-Yu Liao

      Affiliations

    • Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Tsing-Tshih Tsung

      Affiliations

    • Graduate Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Da-An District, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Received 17 May 2007; received in revised form 24 October 2007; accepted 30 October 2007. published online 10 December 2007.

Abstract 

Nanoscale techniques for silver production may assist the resurgence of the medical use of silver, especially given that pathogens are showing increasing resistance to antibiotics. Traditional chemical synthesis methods for colloidal silver (CS) may lead to the presence of toxic chemical species or chemical residues, which may inhibit the effectiveness of CS as an antibacterial agent. To counter these problems a spark discharge system (SDS) was used to fabricate a suspension of colloidal silver in deionized water with no added chemical surfactants. SDS-CS contains both metallic silver nanoparticles (Ag0) and ionic silver forms (Ag+). The antimicrobial affect of SDS-CS on Staphylococcus aureus was studied. The results show that CS solutions with an ionic silver concentration of 30ppm or higher are strong enough to destroy S. aureus. In addition, it was found that a solution's antimicrobial potency is directly related to its level of silver ion concentration.

Keywords: Spark discharge, Colloidal silver, Silver nanoparticles, Ionic silver, Antimicrobial, Staphylococcus aureus

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PII: S1350-4533(07)00183-X

doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2007.10.007

Medical Engineering & Physics
Volume 30, Issue 8 , Pages 948-952, October 2008

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