Copper-Silver Alloy Coated Door Handles as a Potential Antibacterial Strategy in Clinical Settings

• Published in: Coatings (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 8; p. 790
• Main Authors: Ciacotich, Nicole, Kvich, Lasse, Sanford, Nicholas, Wolcott, Joseph, Bjarnsholt, Thomas, Gram, Lone
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Alloys; Antibacterial agents; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Bacteria; Coating; Copper alloys; Copper base alloys; Cotton; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Door knobs; Genes; Life sciences; Materials; Medical laboratories; Microorganisms; Properties; Reference materials; Safety coatings; Silver; Silver alloys; Stainless steel; Stainless steels; Thermal cycling; Wound healing; Denmark; United States; United States > US; Germany
• ISSN: 2079-6412; 2079-6412
• DOI: 10.3390/coatings10080790

Coating surfaces with a copper-silver alloy in clinical settings can be an alternative or complementary antibacterial strategy to other existing technologies and disinfection interventions. A newly developed copper-silver alloy coating has a high antibacterial efficacy against common pathogenic bacteria in laboratory setups, and the purpose of this study is to determine the antibacterial efficacy of this copper-silvery alloy in real-world clinical settings. Two field trials were carried out at a private clinic and a wound care center. Door handles coated with the copper-silver alloy had a lower total aerobic plate count (1.3 ± 0.4 Log CFU/cm2 and 0.8 ± 0.3 Log CFU/cm2, CFU stands for Colony Forming Units) than the reference uncoated material on-site (2.4 ± 0.4 Log CFU/cm2 for the stainless steel and 1.7 ± 0.4 Log CFU/cm2 for the satin brass). The copper-silver alloy did not selectively reduce specific bacterial species. This study points to the possibility of a successful long-term implementation of the copper-silver alloy coating as an antibacterial strategy.