Antimicrobial activity of copper and copper oxide thin films

What is it about?

Hospital acquired infections are prevalent in many hospitals and contaminated touch surfaces are a route of transmission. To find a solution for this, copper and copper oxide thin films were deposited and their antimicrobial activity investigated.

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Why is it important?

We use a simple solution based technique to deposit thin films of copper and copper oxide which were shown to be effective against E. Coli and S. aureus. The high antimicrobial efficacy of the copper oxide films, approaching that of the copper films, suggests that oxide formation on copper objects should not significantly impair their antimicrobial activity.