Comparison of antibacterial ability of copper and stainless steel

doi:10.1007/s11458-007-0042-4

Front. Chem. China ›› 2007, Vol. 2 ›› Issue (2) : 209 -212. DOI: 10.1007/s11458-007-0042-4

GENG Ping¹, ZHANG Wen¹, TANG Hui¹, ZHANG Xinai¹, JIN Litong¹, FENG Zhen², WU Zirong²

Author information +

History +

PDF (320KB)

Abstract

In this paper, the electro-analysis and spectrophotometric analysis methods were used to study the antibacterial ability of copper and stainless steel materials. When Escherichia coli (E. coli) and photo-bacteria were used as samples, the antibacterial effect of stainless steel was very weak, while the percentage of bacteria dying from exposure to metallic copper for 30 min was over 90%. The antibacterial ability of copper has a potential application in the field of disinfection, food packaging and piping of drinking water.