Materials prepared on the base of bioactive silver compounds have become more and more popular due to low
microbial resistance to silver. In the present work, the efficiency of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) thin films
doped with silver ions, nanoparticles and silver–imidazole polymer complex was studied by a combination of
AAS, XPS and AFM techniques. The biological activities of the proposed materials were discussed in view of the
rate of silver releasing from the polymer matrix. Concentrations of Ag active form were estimated by its ability
to interact with L-cysteine using electronic circular dichroism spectroscopy. Rates of the released silver were
compared with the biological activity in dependence on the form of embedded silver. Antimicrobial properties
of doped polymer films were studied using two bacterial strains: Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia
coli. It was found that PMMA films doped with Ag+ had greater activity than those doped with nanoparticles
and silver–imidazole polymeric complexes. However, the antimicrobial efficiency of Ag+ doped films was only
short-term. Contrary, the antimicrobial activity of silver–imidazole/PMMA films increased in time of sample
soaking