Antibacterial activity of poly(vinyl alcohol)-b-poly(acrylonitrile) based micelles loaded with silver nanoparticles

Abstract A new amphiphilic poly(vinyl alcohol)-b-poly(acrylonitrile) (PVOH-b-PAN) copolymer obtained by selective hydrolysis of well-defined poly(vinyl acetate)-b-poly(acrylonitrile) copolymer synthesized by cobalt mediated radical polymerization was used for the preparation of PVOH-b-PAN based micelles with embedded silver nanoparticles. The successful formation of silver loaded micelles has been confirmed by UV–vis, DLS and TEM analysis and their antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli ( E. coli ), Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ), Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) and spore solution of Bacillus subtilis ( B. subtilis ) has been studied. PVOH-b-PAN based micelles with embedded silver nanoparticles showed a strong bactericidal effect against E. coli , S. aureus and P. aeruginosa and the minimum bactericidal concentration for each system (MBC) has been determined.