Micro-nano-copper Killing Bacteria
While regular old copper will eventually kill most bacteria with its ions it does take it a while. Porous micro-nana-copper has such a large surface from which the ions literally spew out. In just two minutes it practically makes them disappear.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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You probably know that copper kills bacteria on contact. But it takes a long time, hours. New micro-nano-copper is much quicker. It kills nearly all bacteria in just two minutes.
Regular copper kills bacteria by releasing ions that create holes in the protective membranes of bacteria. But this process is slow. It usually takes at least an hour but it can take up to four hours in some cases. That means when you use copper as an antibacterial surface it will not prevent microbes from getting onto their next victim.
Experts from the RMIT University and the CSIRO agency developed a special kind of copper that is much deadlier to bacteria. They started with a manganese and copper alloy. They utilized the process of selective leaching during which a certain element is removed from an alloy through corrosion. In this particular case, they removed the manganese atoms. The result is a micro-nano-copper. A porous copper structure that includes many cavities on both the micro and nanoscale.
This structure gives the micro-nano-copper has much more surface area than traditional copper. That makes the micro-nano-copper release much more copper ions that attack all nearby bacteria. Another substantial difference lies in how water behaves. On the surface of traditional copper, water creates water droplets just as you’d expect. But it soaks into the micro-nano-copper and creates a thin film. This makes the bacteria get quickly near the copper and get killed faster.
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