Nano-Antimicrobials—Progress and Prospects

There is a high demand for antimicrobials for the treatment of new and emerging microbial diseases. In particular, microbes developing multidrug resistance have created a pressing need to search for a new generation of antimicrobial agents, which are effective, safe and can be used for the cure of multidrug-resistant microbial infections. Nano-antimicrobials offer effective solutions for these challenges; the details of these new technologies are presented here. The book includes chapters by an international team of experts. Chemical, physical, electrochemical, photochemical and mechanical methods of synthesis are covered. Moreover, biological synthesis using microbes, an option that is both eco-friendly and economically viable, is presented. The antimicrobial potential of different nanoparticles is also covered, bioactivity mechanisms are elaborated on, and several applications are reviewed in separate sections. Lastly, the toxicology of nano-antimicrobials is briefly assessed.

Nicola Cioffi received the "Best Young Researcher" Award from the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) in 2001. He is Assistant Professor at the University of Bari. He serves as referee for 25 international journals and is member of the Editorial Board of the journals "Research & Reviews in ElectroChemistry", "Sensor Letters", and "The Open Materials Science Journal".Mahendra K. Rai is Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology at Amravati University in Maharashtra, India. He has published 190 research papers, more than 100 popular articles in Indian and foreign journals and 15 books. He has received several prestigious awards, inlcuding the Father T.A. Mathias Award (1989) from the All India Association for Christian Higher Education, and the Medini Award (1999) from the Department of Environment and Forest, Government of India.