Physical properties and cytotoxicity of silver nanoparticles under different polymeric stabilizers

At present day, silver nanoparticles are widely used in different fields of human activity. Due to the unique combination of physical and chemical properties, silver nanoparticles have high reactivity and antibacterial activity against microorganisms. For the same reason, silver nanoparticles can render a cytotoxic effect on eukaryotic cells. The usage of different polymeric compounds as stabilizers can allow reducing of it and saving antibacterial activity. With this regard, the examination of new nanoparticles' stabilizers is a vital task. In addition, for the safe usage of silver nanoparticles it is necessary to estimate some of their physical properties and cytotoxicity. Here we evaluated the shape, size, UV-visible absorption, fluorescence, z-potential and cytotoxicity of single silver nanoparticles and nanoparticles, stabilized by polyvinyl alcohol, sodium carboxymethylcellulose, sodium dodecyl sulfate, sodium oleate and agarose. We found that nanoparticles stabilized by all investigated polymeric compounds with the exception of sodium dodecyl sulfate and sodium oleate did not possess significant cytotoxic effect on the test cell culture.