Materials 2017, 10(7), 775; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10070775
Novel Durable Antimicrobial Ceramic with Embedded Copper Sub-Microparticles for a Steady-State Release of Copper Ions
1
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
2
NSF International, 789 Dixboro Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 12 June 2017 / Revised: 3 July 2017 / Accepted: 6 July 2017 / Published: 10 July 2017
(This article belongs to the Section Structure Analysis and Characterization)
Abstract
Using pottery clay, porous ceramic stones were molded and then decorated with copper sub-microparticles inside the pores. Copper added antimicrobial functionality to the clay-based ceramic and showed ability in disinfecting water. Populations of both Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae in contaminated water were reduced by >99.9% in 3 h when exposed to an antimicrobial stone. This antimicrobial performance is attributed to a slow release of copper into water at both room and elevated temperatures. Copper is leached by water to produce ion concentrations in water at a level of 0.05–0.20 ppm after 24 to 72 h immersion tests. This concentration is reproducible over a number of cycles >400. To our knowledge, this is the first formulation of copper sub-microparticles inside the porous structure of commercial-sized ceramic stones that can disinfect bacteria-contaminated water over a period of at least several months. View Full-TextKeywords:
antimicrobial ceramic; copper; water disinfection
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
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Drelich, A.J.; Miller, J.; Donofrio, R.; Drelich, J.W. Novel Durable Antimicrobial Ceramic with Embedded Copper Sub-Microparticles for a Steady-State Release of Copper Ions. Materials 2017, 10, 775.
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