In this article, we represent a versatile and effective technique which using non-toxic chemicals to prepare stable aqueous dispersions of silver nanoparticles (NPs) via modified Tollens process. It was shown that as-prepared silver colloids consisted of finely-dispersed NPs with average diameter about 10 nm and a relatively narrow size distribution. Moreover, they could be stored very stable after several months without observation of aggregates or sedimentation. In comparison with previous works where Tollens process was being used, we for the first time applied UV-irradiation simultaneously with glucose reduction of silver salt through NPs preparation. The colloidal solutions of silver NPs were found to exhibit a high antibacterial activity against gram-negative Escherichia coli. The concentration of silver leading to a complete inhibition of bacteria growth was revealed as low as at 1.0 mu g ml (1) and found much lower compared to earlier reports. These advantages of aqueous dispersions of silver NPs make them ideal for green industrial, medicinal, microbiological and other applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.