Evaluation of antimicrobial action of silver composite microspheres based on styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer

Abstract This article reports the evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of a silver composite based on sulfonic resin. The antimicrobial action of the composite was evaluated against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus through plate, batch and colunm experiments. In batch studies, the efficiency of the composite was evaluated as a function of composite mass, bacterial concentration and contact time. We also developed a method to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of this composite using column tests. The antimicrobial activity of the composite was similar against the three bacteria in halo inhibition and batch experiments. The antibacterial activity was 100% against all bacteria above 0.20 g of composite and for all concentrations of bacteria studied. Column studies showed that the composite (1 g) had 100% action against 48 cm3 of S. aureus and 55 cm3 of E. coli and P. aeruginosa suspensions (105 cells mL-1, 50 cm3 min-1).