Educational Programs and Outreach
Maine South High School ESRP 2021
Structure Property Relationships and Antimicrobial Properties of Silver Nanoparticles
Authors:
- Students:
- Matt Anderson
- Julia Asimacopoulos
- Lilli Bresnahan
- Steven Cataudella
- Jack Christopoulos
- Kieran Doran
- Isaac Hubbard
- Lydia Keller
- Andrew Randazzo
- Ben Romo
- Devin Thomas
- Teachers:
- Kay (Orosz) Wagner
- Mentors:
- Benjamin Diroll (Argonne National Laboratory, Center for Nanoscale Materials)
Center for Nanoscale Materials
Silver colloidal particles are commonly cited for potential in antimicrobial applications. The proposed work focuses on synthesis and characterization of silver colloidal particles, particularly characterization of their optical properties by spectrophotometry, size and shape by electron microscopy, and photothermal behavior via transient absorption measurements. These measurements will serve the pedagogical purpose of introducing ESRP students to highly-sophisticated instrumentation and accompanying analytical techniques; they will also enable analysis of the relationship of size and size-distribution of silver particles to observable light absorption and photothermal properties. Additional experimentation will involve testing anitmicrobial properties in petri dishes using ecoli modified by gene recombinant technology with the pGlo gene comparing these properties with the structure.