Abstract: Objective To characterize the silver in chitosan antibacterial gel, and to establish a method for the determination of silver content in samples. Methods The silver in the samples was analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS). Microwave digestion was adopted to digest the chitosan antibacterial gel, and then the content of silver was determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Results The analysises showed that the particle size of silver in chitosan antibacterial gel was about 150~ 200 nm. The silver showed good linearity in the concentration range of 25~250 µg/L (y=0.000 35x+0.001 7, r=0.999 9). The recovery rate (n=9) was 98.5%. Conclusion SEM, EDS and SP-ICP-MS can be used for the characterization of silver particles in chitosan antibacterial gel. Microwave digestion-flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry method is simple, practicable, high precision and high quantitative accuracy, which is suitable for the quantitative analysis of silver in chitosan antibacterial gel.