Towards the scale-up of the formation of nanoparticles on α-AgWO with bactericidal properties by femtosecond laser irradiation.

In recent years, complex nanocomposites formed by Ag nanoparticles coupled to an α-AgWO semiconductor network have emerged as promising bactericides, where the semiconductor attracts bacterial agents and Ag nanoparticles neutralize them. However, the production rate of such materials has been limited to transmission electron microscope processing, making it difficult to cross the barrier from basic research to real applications. The interaction between pulsed laser radiation and α-AgWO has revealed a new processing alternative to scale up the production of the nanocomposite resulting in a 32-fold improvement of bactericidal performance, and at the same time obtaining a new class of spherical AgWO nanoparticles.