Bacteria and bacteriophage inactivation by silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles

► Nanoparticles, bacteria and viruses interacted with each other. ► Exposure of bacterial viruses MS2 to nanoparticles did not inactivate MS2. ► No bacteriophage inactivation in the presence of ppm levels of AgNPs, Ag+/AgNPs. ► Exposure of nanoparticles increased the number of MS2 by 2-6 orders of magnitude in bacteria-viruses binary system.