Highly dispersed Ag/TiO2 via adsorptive self-assembly for bactericidal application

The strong electrostatic adsorption (SEA) technique was used for the preparation of Ag/TiO2 by driving the Ag precursor onto the TiO2 surface. The prepared material was characterized using nitrogen adsorption–desorption techniques, X-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inductively-coupled plasma. The results demonstrated that the SEA method could effectively prevent Ag itself from aggregating, and Ag nanoparticles (<2 nm) were formed on the TiO2 surface with a uniform distribution. To prove the feasibility of the effective SEA method, the bactericidal performance of Ag/TiO2 particles for antibacterial packaging was evaluated and the results indicated that the highly dispersed Ag on TiO2 exhibited excellent antimicrobial properties since the particle size and dispersion of Ag nanoparticles have a strong relationship with the inhibition of bacterial growth.