Novel antibacterial silver coating on PET fabric assisted with hollow‐cathode glow discharge

The silver‐coated fabrics are of much importance because of their outstanding antibacterial features and are useable in several medical and hygienic applications. The silver deposition on fabrics by conventional techniques is not feasible because of their high processing cost, long processing duration, complex equipment, and multiple steps processing (nanoparticle synthesis and subsequent deposition on fabrics). In this novel study, the antibacterial silver coating is deposited by using a hollow cathode discharge (HCD) capable of generating high‐density plasma, and thus it exhibits high‐efficiency processing. The silver is deposited on woven and non‐woven PET fabrics for various treatment times (10‐60 minutes), and their antibacterial performance against E. coli and S. aureus bacterial is tested. The XRD results verified the deposition of silver with (111) preferred orientation, while SEM analysis depicted the uniform/ homogeneous deposition of silver particles. The interfacial free energy of adhesion depicts that after the silver deposition on both fabrics, the surface is actively unfavorable for bacterial adhesion. The antibacterial test revealed that the silver‐coated woven and non‐woven PET fabrics exhibit exceptional antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus bacteria. As the HCD technique is relatively cost‐effective, no need for specific sputtering targets, eco‐friendly, and require single‐step processing for silver deposition. Thus the results are expected to be of remarkable importance to prepare silver‐coated antibacterial fabrics useable in hospitals and other appropriate applications.