A photochemical approach designed to improve the coating of nanoscale silver films onto food plastic wrappings intended to control bacterial hazards

Plasmonic silver film was directly generated on a variety of substrates through a facile and environmentally friendly method, which involves a UV-photoreduction process without any reducing or stabilizing agent and requiring no thermal step. Top-coated films of unprotected silver nanoparticles (3–11 nm) were generated from hydroalcoholic AgNO₃ solution and directly on glass substrates or food packaging plastic wraps, low density polyethylene film, and polyvinyl chloride. The natural antibacterial activity of the material was evaluated. The correlation between silver migration and antimicrobial activity of silver-functionalized substrates against pure strains of gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) and gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) was demonstrated. By way of illustration, food plastic wraps top-coated in this way exhibited a high antibacterial activity. The metal nanoparticle film obtained in this way was characterized and the influence of several parameters (fluence, exposure, silver nitrate concentration, and nature of the free radicals generator) on their formation was studied. Moreover, by shaping the actinic beam with an appropriate device, it is very easy to pattern the brown yellow silver nanofilm or to print messages in plain text.