Silver, as the oldest antibacterial material, has been almost replaced by other alternatives for its insufficient activity or potential side-effects on the ecosystem due to the over-release of Ag ions (Ag+). Herein, a facile and general strategy is developed to on-substrate fabricate silver coordination polymer nanowire arrays (Ag CPN) by simply immersing Ag-containing substrates into cationic surfactant solution at room temperature. Such a Ag CPN not only provides high-surface-area nano-biointerfaces for destroying microorganisms via physicomechanical interactions but also acts as a safe Ag+ reservoir, steadily releasing Ag+ at a relatively high but safe level (∼40 ppb, but lower than the safe level of 100 ppb). Taking advantage of physicomechanical and chemical effects together, the on-substrate fabricated Ag CPN allows Ag substrates or Ag-coated disposable substrates for efficient and sustainable bacterial disinfection. As a demonstration, the modified silver net shows ∼100% antibacterial activity when the bacterial water with a 1.0 × 106 CFU mL-1 of E. coli flows through in 4.0 m3 h-1 m-2 fluxes. By coating a silver film onto a wide range of cheap or disposable substrates, the present strategy opens up opportunities for reviving ancient silver materials for affordable and recoverable antibacterial applications such as water disinfection.
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