Antibacterial Activity of Visible Light Responsive‐Silver‐Nanoparticle/Titania Composite Thin Films with Unprecedently Higher Amounts of Silver

Abstract To study the antibacterial efficacy of metallic Ag nanoparticle/titania (Ag‐NP)/TiO2 composite thin films against Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), COMP‐Agn with various amounts of Ag (10 mol% ≤ n ≤ 80 mol%) are fabricated on a quartz glass substrate at 600 °C using the molecular precursor method. The films are characterized by X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and UVvis techniques. The analysis reveals that the films are composed of metallic Ag‐NPs embedded in a mixture of anatase and rutile matrix, with a volumetric fraction of Ag ranging from 0.18 to 0.68. The antibacterial activity of the TiO2 thin film and COMP‐Agn are determined by disk diffusion and viable cell count methods. Neither pure TiO2 nor pure Ag films exhibit any discernible antibacterial under dark and visible light. The antibacterial of Ag content in composite films is observed to persist for a maximum increase of 70%. The model is proposed on the basis of photoexcited electron transfer from Ag NPs to the TiO2 conduction band of COMP‐Agn, which clarifies the main factors affecting the photoresponse and the excellent response to visible light via surface plasmon resonance.