Facile\nOn-Substrate Fabrication of Silver Coordination\nPolymer Nanowires for Sustainable and Efficient Water Disinfection

Silver,\nas the oldest antibacterial material, has been almost replaced\nby other alternatives for its insufficient activity or potential side-effects\non the ecosystem due to the over-release of Ag ions (Ag<sup>+</sup>). Herein, a facile and general strategy is developed to on-substrate\nfabricate silver coordination polymer nanowire arrays (Ag CPN) by\nsimply immersing Ag-containing substrates into cationic surfactant\nsolution at room temperature. Such a Ag CPN not only provides high-surface-area\nnano-biointerfaces for destroying microorganisms via physicomechanical\ninteractions but also acts as a safe Ag<sup>+</sup> reservoir, steadily\nreleasing Ag<sup>+</sup> at a relatively high but safe level (∼40\nppb, but lower than the safe level of 100 ppb). Taking advantage of\nphysicomechanical and chemical effects together, the on-substrate\nfabricated Ag CPN allows Ag substrates or Ag-coated disposable substrates\nfor efficient and sustainable bacterial disinfection. As a demonstration,\nthe modified silver net shows ∼100% antibacterial activity\nwhen the bacterial water with a 1.0 × 10<sup>6</sup> CFU mL<sup>–1</sup> of <i>E. coli</i> flows through in 4.0\nm<sup>3</sup> h<sup>–1</sup> m<sup>–2</sup> fluxes.\nBy coating a silver film onto a wide range of cheap or disposable\nsubstrates, the present strategy opens up opportunities for reviving\nancient silver materials for affordable and recoverable antibacterial\napplications such as water disinfection.