Enhanced Antibacterial and Food Simulant Activities of Silver Nanoparticles/Polypropylene Nanocomposite Films

In this work, we synthesize dodecyl mercaptan-functionalized silver nanoparticles integrated with polypropylene nanocomposite (DM-AgNPs/PP) substrates by a simple in situ melt blending method. The formation and distribution of AgNPs are confirmed by UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The existence of DM-AgNPs in PP film substrate enhances the thermal degradation and crystallization properties. Further, the antimicrobial activity of as-synthesized DM-AgNPs/PP film substrate is studied using Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria as model microbes, which displayed significantly enhanced bacteriostatic activities under optimized composition and experimental conditions. Interestingly, PP substrate with 0.4% DM-AgNPs exhibits drastically improved antibacterial property via the release of oxygen reactive species and Ag ion diffusion processes; thus, the inhibition rates o...