Sputter deposition of nanostructured antibacterial silver on polypropylene non-wovens

Abstract

Nanostructured silver films were deposited at room temperature on polypropylene non-wovens by radio frequency magnetron sputter coating to obtain the antibacterial properties, and the relationship between sputter parameters and antibacterial properties were investigated in this paper. The antibacterial activity of the materials was assessed using shake flask test. The effects of silver film deposition on surface morphology were characterised using SEM and AFM. Surface elemental compositions were also analysed using EDX analysis. The results of antibacterial tests revealed that deposition time was the key parameter affecting the antibacterial properties of the materials, while sputtering power and argon pressure seemed to have a slight effect on antibacterial performance. It is believed that the total amount of silver ions released from the silver coating was increased as the deposition time increased. The AFM images and quantitative analysis by EDX respectively revealed that increase in deposition time led to the increased coverage of silver film and the increased silver weight percentage per unit surface, which provided evidences for the increased release rate of the silver ions from coating.