Tailored nanomaterials for antimicrobial applications

Antibiotic drugs have been used since the early 1900s with great effect in pushing diseases like tuberculosis to near eradication level in the developed world. With the commercialization of penicillin in the late 1940s, antibiotics have known large popularity that eventually leads to their overuse and misuse, especially in the livestock industry. Owing to their large populations and very fast reproduction time, bacteria are able to build up tolerance, and in time develop resistance mechanisms nullifying the effect of antibiotics. According to the UK-commissioned report “Antimicrobial Resistance: Tackling a crisis for the health and wealth of nations” approximately 700,000 death worldwide were attributable to resistant pathogens in 2014, estimated to grow up to 10 million by 2050 with an associated treatment cost of 100 trillion USD. This chapter exposes the antimicrobial mechanisms of nanomaterials and how these can be enhanced by engineering the material’s properties at the nanoscale, that is, modifying their morphology, crystallinity, or chemical composition.