Here is some information that I thought the group might be interested in. http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=ECS TF8000011000021000001000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes
Treatment of Various Surfaces with Silver and its Compounds for Topical Wound Dressings, Catheter and Other Biomedical Applications "The applications of surfaces treated with silver and its compounds include devices used as topical wound dressings, urinary catheters, endotracheal tubes, cardiac valves etc. Treatment of surfaces e.g. textile, polymers or metals with silver or its compounds is carried out to achieve the antimicrobial action of silver ions. Several approaches of surface treatment of medical devices for the antimicrobial purposes, such as electrodeposition, electroless deposition, physical vapor deposition, <<Picture (Device Independent Bitmap)>> - radiation, etc. have been used in practice. It is clear that only silver ions are responsible for the antimicrobial activity. As confirmed experimentally, only samples containing silver compounds can deliberate silver ions in the tested media and exhibit antimicrobial activity both in vitro and in vivo. There is no evidence that elemental silver, even its so-called "nano-crystalline" state, exhibits an antimicrobial activity. Consequently, the devices coated with "nano-crystalline" silver should carefully be taken into consideration before the application." Full article in google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=mWFylRiXV8cC&pg=PT9&lpg=PT9&dq=%22Treat ment+of+various+surfaces+with+silver+and+its+compounds+for+topical+wound +dressings%22&source=bl&ots=ixGCz2qti9&sig=of-Mkcn3VyMVbo0syg6hZMiY788&h l=en&ei=-pMdS7rvN87anAfX2dzeAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ve d=0CBIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Treatment%20of%20various%20surfaces%20with% 20silver%20and%20its%20compounds%20for%20topical%20wound%20dressings%22& f=false "Based on the observation that metallic silver may exhibit some antimicrobial activity, when sufficiently long in contact with interstitial fluids, and considering the fact that only silver ions, and not silver metal, are responsible for the antimicrobial activity. One can conclude that electrochemical or corrosion phenomena plays a significant role in the antimicrobial activity of pure silver." Some more food for thought. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC127333/ Chemiosmotic Mechanism of Antimicrobial Activity of Ag+ in Vibrio cholerae "Although the antimicrobial effects of silver salts were noticed long ago, the molecular mechanism of the bactericidal action of Ag+ in low concentrations has not been elucidated. Here, we show that low concentrations of Ag+ induce a massive proton leakage through the Vibrio cholerae membrane, which results in complete deenergization and, with a high degree of probability, cell death." - Steve N
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