ABSTRACT
Metallic nanoparticles are used in a variety of industrial applications and consumer products. Although metallic nanoparticles represent only a small group among the plethora of engineered nanomaterials, they display by far the greatest number of applied nanomaterials in consumer products which have been introduced into the market, primarily because of their antimicrobial, electrical, optical, and/or magnetic properties. This chapter will focus on engineered metal nanomaterials with widespread application in many industrial elds, in particular, nanosized silver, gold, copper, and platinum. Biological effects induced by these nanomaterials in vitro and in vivo will be discussed with special reference to their unique physicochemical properties. In addition, we will describe important ndings from the German project nanoGEM, in which different variants of well-characterized silver nanoparticles were analyzed for their biological effects using multiple test systems.
