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Description:

Copper and its alloys have antimicrobial activity effective for various pathogens. Their application to touch surface successfully reduced bioburden in hospital intensive care units but failed to completely prevent the transmission of pathogens derived from the hospital room. Discoloration of pure copper with surface oxide growth is another issue to discourage its application to touch surface. Common copper alloys have relatively high resistance for discoloration, but their antimicrobial activity is lower than that of pure copper. Therefore, enhancement of the antimicrobial activity of copper alloys is beneficial for their touch surface application. In this study, glutathione was employed for surface treatment of copper and its alloys to enhance their antiviral activity. Treatment with 4mM of glutathione in 99vol.% ethanol-1% H2O markedly enhanced copper and its alloys’ antiviral activities against bacteriophage Qβ except MONEL, which has the lowest Cu content (33.4 wt.%). Electrochemical impedance measurement under thin electrolyte film revealed acceleration of copper and its alloys’ corrosion by the glutathione treatment. The antiviral activity of tested materials with the glutathione treatment correlated well with their corrosion rate, except MONEL. Potentiodynamic and chronopotentiometry measurements in 6 M KOH + 1 M LiOH demonstrated reduction in the thickness of surface oxide layer by the glutathione treatment. These facts suggest that the glutathione treatment reduces surface oxide layer, resulting in acceleration of corrosion with increase in Cu ion release which enhances
antiviral activity.

Rights:

• Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 International
  

Keyword: antiviral tests, copper alloys, glutathione, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, bacteriophage Qβ

Date published:

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Journal:

• ACS Applied Bio Materials (ISSN: 25766422) vol. 9 issue. 12 p. 5237-5248

Funding:

• JST JPMJTM20KSPS (A-STEP)

Manuscript type: Publisher's version (Version of record)

MDR DOI:

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.6c00520

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Updated at: 2026-06-24 15:35:04 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-06-24 18:27:30 +0900