Abstract
In this work to investigate the effects of using different gases in cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on surface treatment of silver thin films (100, 120 nm film thickness) He and Ar were employed. Ag was sputtered on glass substrate and X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM) for structural and morphological studies before and after plasma radiation was carried out. Surface treatment of Ag thin films by CAP increased surface roughness especially with Ar plasma, this rise of surface roughness of Ag thin film leads to make their surface hydrophilic which can be very important for antibacterial activity of Ag films in removal of Escherichia coli (E. coli) which was used as target bacterium. Argon plasma radiation was more effective than helium on both surface morphology and anti-bacterial property. XRD results showed that crystalline orientation of [111] peak of silver remains as preferred orientation, but the grain size did not change that much after plasma treatment. The crystalline size was calculated by Debye–Scherrer formula using peak [111] of Ag samples (as the most intense peak of silver).
Highlights
For many decades silver and gold are known as the best electrical conductors and Ag specially has various applications in different sciences and technologies [1]
In the past few years non-thermal plasma has been used in various technologies, sciences and recently in medical instruments due to its anti-microbial property and it has been employed in wound healing, special medical bandage, and removing infections [14,15,16,17,18]
In both cases the crystalline orientation of peak [111] of Ag was the preferred orientation and plasma radiation did not change the intensity of the peaks very much, and due to plasma radiation no displacement of the silver peaks was occurred
Summary
For many decades silver and gold are known as the best electrical conductors and Ag specially has various applications in different sciences and technologies [1]. In our previous works silver and copper and ZnO (as antibacterial materials) were employed in fabrication and modification of different polymeric membranes for separating salt, heavy and valuable metals from waters and their antibacterial activity were studied (but low amount of Ag in membranes was not sufficient and not very effective for removal of bacterium). Since they were very thin (micrometer thickness) and may not resist high pressure from industrial wastewater for removal of microbial impurities so they were good only for dead end systems (static waters) [12, 13]. In the past few years non-thermal plasma has been used in various technologies, sciences and recently in medical instruments due to its anti-microbial property and it has been employed in wound healing, special medical bandage, and removing infections [14,15,16,17,18]
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