Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2004 May;70(5):2848-53.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.70.5.2848-2853.2004.

Use of aqueous silver to enhance inactivation of coliphage MS-2 by UV disinfection

Michael A Butkus  1 , Michael P Labare, Jeffrey A Starke, King Moon, Mark Talbot
Affiliations

Use of aqueous silver to enhance inactivation of coliphage MS-2 by UV disinfection

Michael A Butkus et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2004 May.

Abstract

A synergistic effect between silver and UV radiation has been observed that can appreciably enhance the effectiveness of UV radiation for inactivation of viruses. At a fluence of ca. 40 mJ/cm(2), the synergistic effect between silver and UV was observed at silver concentrations as low as 10 microg/liter (P < 0.0615). At the same fluence, an MS-2 inactivation of ca. 3.5 logs (99.97%) was achieved at a silver concentration of 0.1 mg/liter, a significant improvement (P < 0.0001) over the ca. 1.8-log (98.42%) inactivation of MS-2 at ca. 40 mJ/cm(2) in the absence of silver. Modified Chick-Watson kinetics were used to model the synergistic effect of silver and UV radiation. For an MS-2 inactivation of 4 logs (99.99%), the coefficient of dilution (n) was determined to be 0.31, which suggests that changes in fluence have a greater influence on inactivation than does a proportionate change in silver concentration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Inactivation of MS-2 by silver (0.1 mg/liter for 130 min) (column 1) and UV radiation (ca. 40 mJ/cm2) (column 2); (column 3) sum of columns 1 and 2; (column 4) silver (0.1 mg/liter for 10 min) followed by UV radiation (ca. 40 mJ/cm2) and then neutralized immediately (10-min total silver exposure); (column 5) silver (0.1 mg/liter for 10 min) followed by UV radiation (ca. 40 mJ/cm2) and then neutralized 120 min after exposure to UV (130-min total silver exposure). The difference between column 3 and column 5 was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.0001). Error bars represent 1 standard deviation.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Inactivation of MS-2 as a function of fluence and silver concentration in a phosphate-buffered solution (pH 7.2). Fluence data for UV only (⧫) pass through the origin. The lowest fluence data for the samples containing silver (▪ and ▴) were 1 mJ/cm2. Samples that were first exposed to silver (0.05 or 1 mg of Ag/liter) were incubated for 73 min including the time required to achieve the specified fluence. Error bars represent 1 standard deviation.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
Inactivation of MS-2 as a function of silver concentration for a fluence of ca. 40 mJ/cm2. Silver incubation time was 10 min. Error bars represent 1 standard deviation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams, M. H. 1959. Bacteriophages. Intersciences, New York, N.Y.
    1. Arakawa, H., J. F. Neault, and H. A. Tajmir-Riahi. 2001. Silver(I) complexes with DNA and RNA studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and capillary electrophoresis. Biophys. J. 81:1580-1587. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beer, C. W., L. E. Guilmartin, T. F. McLoughlin, and T. J. White. 1999. Swimming pool disinfection. J. Environ. Health 61:9-13.
    1. Bell, F. A. 1991. Review of effects of silver-impregnated carbon filters on microbial water quality. J. Am. Water Works Assoc. 83:74-76.
    1. Belly, R. T., and G. C. Kydd. 1982. Silver resistance in microorganisms. Dev. Ind. Microbiol. 23:567-577.

Publication types