Quantifying Surface Topographies on Antimicrobial Copper

Specific angular topographies on metalMetals surfaces can create non-uniform charge distributions that can disrupt biochemical processesProcess and structuresStructure of nearby microbes. A new method has been developed to assess the density and asperity of topographical features designed to neutralize viral and bacterial pathogens. Coarse grain and ultrafine grainUltrafine grains high-purity copperCopper surfaces were chemically treated to impart microscale and nanoscale architectures. Images from Scanning Electron Microscopy and topographical data from Atomic Force Microscopy were analyzed using algorithms to quantify the electrostatic potential of the surfaces. We found that treated surfaces of coarse grain copperCopper produced by conventional rolling and annealing and ultrafine-grained copperCopper made using a new High Shear Deformation processProcess, Friction-Assisted Lateral Extrusion ProcessProcess both resulted in average asperity spacings smaller than the size of pathogens. However, the ultrafine grainUltrafine grains copperCopper had a Surface Asperity Charge Density that was 4.5 times greater than the coarse grain copperCopper. Means to further enhance the computation of a quantitative measure of Surface Asperity Charge Density were identified. The analysis algorithms provide the basis for developing machine learningMachine learning methods to optimize the antimicrobialAntimicrobial effectiveness of copperCopper surfaces.