en
Download

Micro World

How small is a silver nanoparticle?

A silver nanoparticle is about 40 nm across.

What is measured: engineered spherical nanoparticle, diameter

Silver Nanoparticle (40 nm) drawn to scale beside a ribosome (25 nm) and a flu virus (100 nm)
Drawn to scale, from left to right: Ribosome (25 nm), Silver Nanoparticle (40 nm) and Flu virus (100 nm).

Compare

How big is that, really?

  • About 1.6× as wide as a ribosome
  • About 2 would fit across a flu virus
  • As wide as about 20 DNA double helices side by side

Learn

Facts about Silver Nanoparticle

Silver nanoparticles are used in some medical dressings and fabrics for their antibacterial properties.

Source: National Nanotechnology Initiative; ACS Nano: Silver nanoparticle synthesis

Micro World

NameSizeCompared with Silver Nanoparticle
Colloidal Gold Nanoparticle20 nm0.5×
Bacteriophage Phi X17427 nm0.68×
Qβ Bacteriophage28 nm0.7×
Silver Nanoparticle40 nmthis page
Fibrinogen Molecule45 nm1.1×
Silicon Nanowire50 nm1.3×
West Nile Virus50 nm1.3×
Human Papillomavirus55 nm1.4×
Cyanophage P-SSP760 nm1.5×
Silica Nanoparticle100 nm2.5×

Test your sense of scale

Which is bigger: Silver Nanoparticle or Silicon Nanowire?

Topics

More sizes like this