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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Thin films of silver and copper embedded in a porous ceramic can kill bacteria and may one day be used to battle hospital infections.
The antimicrobial properties of silver and copper have been known for centuries. Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially registered copper alloys, allowing them to be marketed with the label, "Kills 99.9 percent of bacteria within two hours." Copper ions are known to penetrate bacteria and disrupt molecular pathways important for their survival.
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Using ceramic structures, Dana Filoti, a graduate student in physics at the University of New Hampshire, is researching the hypothesis that a combination of silver and copper might work synergistically to better kill bacteria. "The hard ceramic structure looks like Swiss cheese and inside the holes there are ions of silver and copper," Filoti was quoted as saying.
By experimenting with the ratio of the two metals and the texture of the thin films, Filoti has been able to reduce the amount of microbes present on a surface by 99 percent. One application of these antimicrobials is an antimicrobial face mask designed to protect against pathogens that cause many hospital-acquired infections.
SOURCE: Presented at the meeting of the scientific society AVS in San Jose, CA, November 12, 2009
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