This is a two part lesson focused on the use of colloidal silver as an antibacterial agent.The purpose of this activity is to use electro-chemistry techniques to generate colloidal silver and then utilize the colloidal silver to determine if the growth of the bacteria Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Escherichia coli can be inhibited. Students will determine if the purported antibacterial claims of commercial colloidal silver hold true or if this is a case of "snake oil" science.

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Rebekah Ravgiala

NNIN RET program at Harvard University NSF EEC 0601939 and NNIN ECCS 0335765

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Rebekah Ravgiala, NNCI Nano (2020), "The Effects of Colloidal Silver on Microbial Growth: Investigating Snake Oil Science," https://nanohub.org/resources/32243.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. bacteria
2. biology
3. chemistry
4. Colloids
5. high school
6. K-12
7. nanoparticles
8. NNCI Educational Materials
9. silver nanoparticles
10. social issues