Studies on interaction of colloidal silver nanoparticles (SNPs) with five different bacterial species

► Adsorption of SNPs on bacterial cells directly depends on zeta potential. ► The zeta potential varies with change in pH and NaCl concentrations. ► Adsorption equilibrium isotherms fitted well by the Langmuir model. ► Kinetics of adsorption fitted by pseudo-first-order. ► Bacterial survival rate decreased with increase in SNPs adsorption.