Long‐Term Synergistic Antibacterial Composite Films Boosted by Controlled Underwater Surface Reconstruction

Abstract

AbstractImplanting bactericidal ability to low surface energy fluoropolymer is expected to develop advanced surfaces with excellent antibacterial performance for various applications. However, the fundamental conflicts, the difficulty of discharging release‐active bactericides from hydrophobic fluoropolymers and the trade‐off between the electrostatic contact‐active microbicides and the minimized surface interaction for contaminant release, are general consensus in the field and explain the very limited success in existing reports. The current work highlights an effective and feasible strategy that utilizes the interaction between silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and polymer matrices to generate composite films with controllable underwater surface reconstruction, enabling to regulate surface energy exquisitely to area facilitating the bacterial release and establish a synergistic bacteria‐killing action, and thereby boosting the bacteria‐killing and bacteria‐release simultaneously. Quaternized fluoropolymer/Ag NPs nanocomposite particles (qf‐polymer/Ag NCPs) are first synthesized through miniemulsion polymerization, and then used as building blocks to fabricate the quaternized fluoropolymer/Ag NPs nanocomposite films (qf‐polymer/Ag CFs) through a convenient squeegeeing technique. The qf‐polymer/Ag CFs display long‐term antibacterial performance against diverse bacteria. A synergistic antibacterial mechanism contributed by the Ag NPs, quaternary ammonium, and fluorinated components is proposed. This work provides new insight into the design, fabrication, and performance optimization of long‐term antibacterial surfaces for diverse applications.