Professor Orlin Velev and colleagues have developed an effective and environmentally benign method to combat bacteria by engineering nanoscale particles that add the antimicrobial potency of silver to a core of lignin, a ubiquitous substance found in all plant cells. The findings introduce ideas for better, greener and safer nanotechnology.
The study, “An environmentally benign antimicrobial nanoparticle based on a silver-infused lignin core,” is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology(Nat. Nanotechnol.2015, DOI:10.1038/nnano.2015.141).