Date of Graduation

8-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Wang, Yong

Committee Member

Chen, Zhong

Second Committee Member

Ware, Morgan E.

Keywords

Antimicrobial; Modeling; Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

Silver (Ag) has been well known for its antimicrobial activity for a long time. Recent research showed the potential of Ag nanoparticles as emerging antimicrobial agents. However, little quantitative analysis has been performed so far to decipher the mechanism of interaction between nanoparticles and bacteria. Here, a detailed analysis based on kinetic growth assay and colony forming unit assay has been carried out to study the antimicrobial effect of Ag nanoparticles against Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. It was observed that the presence of Ag nanoparticles increased the lag time of bacterial growth while not affecting the maximum growth rate significantly. Besides, they can inhibit bacterial growth in the exponential phase by killing some E. coli bacteria cells. A quantitative model was developed to describe the observed antimicrobial behaviors of Ag nanoparticles. The model can successfully predict the experimental measurements. In addition, a mathematical approach to extract the model parameters using experimental data has also been described. It is expected that the model along with the parameters will help to understand the antimicrobial activity of Ag nanoparticles.

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