Copper Nanowire‐Immobilized Coatings for Antibacterial Application

Abstract Inanimate surfaces play an important role in the spread of infectious diseases, particularly in closed environments with high microbial burdens like hospitals. Bacteria are deposited on these surfaces either by settling of infectious droplets or transferred by touch. Once attached, they quickly colonize the surface and can survive for days even under ambient indoor conditions. These bacteria are then transmitted to others via touch. In this context, antibacterial coatings placed over “high‐touch” areas in the hospital can break this loop of pathogen transmission. In this work, copper nanowire (Cu NW)‐immobilized coatings that possess good antibacterial activity are fabricated and can be deposited over any substrate. Cu NWs are synthesized via an environmentally friendly and facile chemical reduction method using glucose as the reducing agent and hexadecylamine as the capping agent. The coatings are fabricated via a two‐step process. First, a thin layer of polydopamine is deposited over the substrate followed by immobilization of pre‐synthesized Cu NWs. The amount of Cu loaded onto the coatings is optimized and the resulting coated substrates demonstrated excellent antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus . The results demonstrate the promising use of Cu nanomaterials for antibacterial applications.