Figure 2.

Silver nanoparticles with anti-bacterial activity are synthesized via microemulsions. Water-in-oil microemulsions can serve as nanoreactors for synthesizing nanoparticles such as silver. Interestingly, the size of the nanoreactors (aqueous core) can be easily varied via adjustment of the water-to-surfactant molar ratio that can generate nanoparticles with controllable size and composition. Such control could have a pronounced effect on the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles.