Abstract: Nanostructured silver films of different thicknesses were deposited on the surface of PLA nonwovens by magnetron sputter coating,and the effect of film thickness on antibacterial properties of the prepared samples was studied.Shake flask test was used to assess the antibacterial properties of all samples.Atomic force microscope(AFM) was employed to observe the surface morphology of nanostructured silver films and the grain size of silver particles was analyzed.EDX was used to analyze the surface elemental distribution.The results showed that the antibacterial properties were improved as the film thickness increased.AFM images revealed that as the sputtering time was prolonged,the film thickness increased,the film became compacter,and the specific area of the film also increased,thus,the release rate of silver ions increased,which led to improved antibacterial properties.EDX test results indicated that increase in film thickness led to increase in silver weight percentage per unit surface,causing improved antibacterial properties.Moreover,when the film thickness was 1 nm,the inhibition percentage of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were 100%.