Covering Surfaces with Copper Destroys Coronavirus

As infected people cough and exhale, particles containing coronavirus are expelled into the air and land on surfaces. Antimicrobial coatings can potentially kill the virus before it spreads to others.

Delumeau et al. investigated six different thin metal and oxide films and their interaction with HCov-229E, a coronavirus that is like SARS-CoV-2 but safer to work with. They deposited the films on glass, then either immersed the sample in viral solution or exposed it to smaller droplets of the viral solution. After a time, they removed the virus from the film, placed it in contact with healthy cells, and measured its ability to replicate.

The virucidal effects of thin film coatings have not been studied as much as bulk material. The team found copper films effectively destroyed the coronavirus.

“If you put a droplet of this viral-containing media on the surface, it can induce an uneven stress distribution in the film, which can cause the copper film to delaminate, or peel off, and, as a result, dissolve in the droplet more quickly,” said author Kevin Musselman. “This enhanced the viricidal effect.”

Other films did not have the same antiviral effects as copper. However, some may still have antimicrobial properties when exposed to UV light, for example.

By depositing a thin film of copper on an N-95 respirator, the researchers found slower, but still effective, virucidal effects than on the glass, likely due to the lack of delamination of the film on the mask fabric.

Musselman said the group is exploring the delamination process for smaller droplet sizes, as well as investigating how to control the adhesion of copper to various surfaces.

Source: “Effectiveness of antiviral metal and metal oxide thin film coatings against human coronavirus 229E,” by Louis-Vincent Delumeau, Hatameh Asgarimoghaddam, Tamiru Alkie, Alexander James Bryan Jones, Samantha Lum, Kissan Mistry, Marc G. Aucoin, Stephanie DeWitte-Orr, and Kevin P. Musselman, APL Materials (2021). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0056138 .

This paper is part of the Antiviral Materials and Coatings Collection, learn more here .