The synthesis of highly stable silver colloids has been successfully achieved by using reducing/stabilizer amino-functionalized polymers without the aid of any other external agent. The polymer coated inorganic nanoparticles have been detailed characterized via scattering, imaging and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and light scattering suggested nearly spherical structures stabilized by a lengthy polymeric shell with surface charge dependent on polymer nature and molecular weight. The hybrid nanomaterials are produced via an autocatalytic process where the onset of colloid formation is influenced by the available hydrophobic nitrogen units normalized by the weight of polymer. The induction period, however, does not influence the dimension of the metallic cores which are similar although with a high degree of dispersity. The coating confers a large hydrodynamic size to the silver nanoparticles and the length of the stabilizing shell is chiefly governed by the molecular weight of the amino-functionalized polymers. These features may significantly impact the cytotoxicity and bactericidal properties of the hybrid materials. These investigations are currently underway.

Nanoparticles' surface properties can be used as triggers to regulate or even enhance biological response and generate tailored structures to substitute conventional antibiotics. Here, silica nanoparticles surface was duly tuned in order to increase the water-insoluble drug load (curcumin) and improve the antibacterial activity. Our main motivation was based on the electrostatic attraction between the positively charged amino groups and the negatively charged curcumin and/or bacteria membrane. In addition, the variation of amino grafting amount on silica nanoparticles indicated that the grafting increase was directly related to the extent of drug entrapped into the nanoparticles as well as to the bactericidal activity. The combination of amino-functionalized silica nanoparticles associated with the presence of curcumin allowed to produce a dual bactericidal system that shows promising perspective for its use in biomedical applications.