Antibacterial Properties of Ag3PO4 Particles on Bacteriostatic Behavior of Escherichia coli

The aim of this work was to investigate the influences of different concentrations of Ag3PO4 aqueous dispersion by measuring the bacteriostatic characteristic against bacteria E. coli. The Ag3PO4 particles were successfully synthesized by precipitation method. Then, the morphological, structural and chemical compositional analyses were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. All these analyses confirmed the formation of Ag3PO4 particles with the shape of nearly spherical with a size of 100 – 700 nm. Meanwhile, Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility test was chosen to determine the sensitivity of E. coli to antibacterial compounds in Ag3PO4 particles. The results showed that the antibacterial ability was significantly improved by increasing the concentration of Ag3PO4 aqueous dispersion, and the best concentration was 600 mg /mL. This study suggested that Ag3PO4 particles can be exploited as an effective candidate for antibacterial agents.