Conventional disinfectants used as antimicrobial agents have harmful ingredients like chemicals and solvents.  With the advent of Nanotechnology, the goal of chemical-free disinfectants can be achieved. Nanoparticles prepared from biopolymers or certain metals having antimicrobial properties have several advantages over conventional chemical disinfectants like negligible toxicity, lacking harmful solvents or chemicals components.

Organic nanoparticles having antimicrobial properties that can be increased by exposure to light. However, owing to lower aqueous solubility it requires an appropriate nanoparticle-based system that increases its solubility as well as activity. Most of the metallic nanoparticles kill microorganisms by a phenomenon known as Mitigation or touch killing. Metallic nanoparticles too have inherent antimicrobial properties and are being widely used in many of the available commercial products. They can penetrate bacterial cell walls, changing the structure of cell membranes resulting in cell death. Similarly, the antimicrobial activity of few more metallic nanoparticles is due to cell wall damage and lipid peroxidation.

This hybrid nanotechnology-based disinfectant contains a combination of metallic and organic encapsulated biopolymeric nanoparticles. The hybrid disinfectant will form a thin temporary coating of biopolymeric nanoparticles on the surface. Due to the encapsulation of organic nanoparticles in biopolymeric nanoparticles, the release will be delayed thereby increasing its availability and increasing the antimicrobial action. The cocktail shows higher antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and viruses with sustained action with no toxicity and side effects.