Antimicrobial properties of vertically aligned nano-tubular copper

In this work, the antimicrobial properties of vertically aligned nano-tubular Cu arrays (NT-Cu) fabricated via a template-based electrodeposition approach were investigated. The NT-Cu display good bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus and bacteriostatic properties against Escherichia coli, Shigella sonnei, Salmonella enterica and Candida albicans. In contrast, Cu-foil electrodeposited from the same solution shows low biological activity against the same microorganisms. The antimicrobial activity of NT-Cu depends on both the type of microorganism and exposure time. After 6 h of exposure, over 99.99% (log red=4.43) of S. aureus population was inactivated, whereas, for E. coli, S. sonnei, S. enterica and C. albicans, the inactivation was 97.8, 94.2, 89.9, and 90.3%, respectively.