Preparation of one-dimensional hierarchical sodium titanate under mild conditions and its potential application in recyclable Ag+-loaded antimicrobials

Sodium titanate is a potential substrate for the preparation of high-quality antibacterial agents because it has a superior ion adsorption ability. However, the tedious preparation process and the difficulty of recovery restrict its applications. Herein, we have successfully synthesized sodium titanate under mild conditions using reactants with a higher potential energy. Because of the dissolution-redeposition process, the product has a hierarchical structure, and this increases the specific surface area from 93.5 to 110.2 m2/g. When sodium titanate powder was used as a substrate to adsorb Ag ions, the adsorption capacity can reach 486.9 mg/g (32.7 wt%) within one minute, and the active sites on its surface were calculated to be about 4.51 mmol/g. In addition, sodium titanate has excellent performance at inhibiting the growth of E. coli after loading Ag ions. The antibacterial efficiency can reach 99.68% within 20 min, and the MIC and MBC are 12.5 mg/L and 200 mg/L, respectively. [Display omitted]