Synergistic Effect of Surface Microstructure and Ag3PO4 on Antimicrobial Performance of Polypropylene-Based Composites

In recent years, due to the drug resistance and side effects caused by microbe infection and microbe modification, people have begun to implement strategies to reduce side effects to prevent microbe infection. Therefore, a synergistic strategy is designed to prepare bioactive polypropylene/silver phosphate (PP/Ag₃PO₄) composites with different Ag₃PO₄ contents by combining PP and Ag₃PO₄ through melt blending, and micrometer-scale surfaces inspired by lotus leaves are fabricated using the hot embossing technique. By comparing and analyzing the obtained data, it is found that the microstructured PP/Ag₃PO₄ prepared by 2800 mesh sieve has the best superhydrophobicity and antibacterial properties with 5% Ag₃PO₄. The contact angle of the composite material can be increased to 152°, showing excellent superhydrophobic properties. During the antibacterial test, it is observed that the colony formation unit counting on the surface reaches a minimum, and the number of surviving bacteria decreases to a minimum, indicating a dense and orderly arrangement, and the PP/Ag₃PO₄ composite containing 5% silver phosphate shows excellent antibacterial properties.