Polyacrylamide gels are widely used as matrices for biomolecular analysis and fractionation, and they are being developed as biomaterials for diverse medical and industrial applications. This study reports silver nitrate as a novel catalyst for the synthesis of polyacrylamide gels from acrylamide and N,N-methylene bisacrylamide monomers. The conditions were defined for silver-catalyzed, free-radical-induced polymerization, and a suitable buffer system was devised for the electrophoretic resolution of nucleic acids. A silver-staining procedure was modified for these gels, and they were compared with N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine-catalyzed gels for sensitivity and gel background. Silver nitrate and ammonium persulfate at final concentrations of 100 and 625 mu g/mL, respectively, polymerized the resolving gels within 20 min at room temperature. These gels exhibited antimicrobial properties. The gels with >= 10 mu g/mL silver nitrate showed a zone of complete inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus growth on a Luria-Bertani agar plate. The silver-catalyzed gels were also suitable as antigen- and drug-delivery devices. Silver, acting as both a catalyst and a microbicidal agent, was better than N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine for the synthesis of polyacrylamide gels as drug- and oxygen-delivery devices for topical applications. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 119: 1084-1089, 2011