Antimicrobial Activity of Thin Solid Films of Silver Doped Hydroxyapatite Prepared by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

In this work, the preparation and characterization of silver doped hydroxyapatite thin films were reported and their antimicrobial activity was characterized. Silver doped hydroxyapatite (Ag:HAp) thin films coatings substrate was prepared on commercially pure Si disks by sol-gel method. The silver doped hydroxyapatite thin films were characterized by various techniques such as Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy Dispersive X-ray attachment (X-EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES). These techniques have permitted the structural and chemical characterisation of the silver doped hydroxyapatite thin films. The antimicrobial effect of the Ag:HAp thin films on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria was then investigated. This is the first study on the antimicrobial effect of Ag:HAp thin films obtained by sol-gel method. The results of this study have shown that the Ag:HAp thin films with<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>x</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>Ag</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:math>are effective against E. coli and S. aureus after 24 h.