Polymeric Blends with Copper: A Powerful Weapon against Pathogenic Spread

first_page settings Order Article Reprints Font Type: Arial Georgia Verdana Font Size: Aa Aa Aa Line Spacing:    Column Width:    Background: Open AccessAbstract Polymeric Blends with Copper: A Powerful Weapon against Pathogenic Spread † by Cyril Santos, Hugo Marques, Artur Mateus, Nuno Alves * and Joana Filipa Abreu Valente * CDRSP-IPL—Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development, Polytechnic of Leiria, Rua de Portugal, 2430-028 Marinha Grande, Portugal * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. † Presented at the Materiais 2022, Marinha Grande, Portugal, 10–13 April 2022. Mater. Proc. 2022, 8(1), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008080 Published: 7 June 2022 (This article belongs to the Proceedings of MATERIAIS 2022) Download Download PDF Download PDF with Cover Download XML Download Epub Versions Notes Keywords: antimicrobial properties; bacteria; copper; virus; polymer The current pandemic situation leads us to adapt to this new reality and to search for alternatives regarding the materials that we use daily. Accordingly, it is often explained that the virus can remain on surfaces, making them potential vehicles for spread [1]. In this regard, the development of materials with antimicrobial properties has arisen.Among the most studied antimicrobial solutions, there are metals (different kinds and applied in different formats) and, among them, copper (Cu) is one of the most used with proven antimicrobial properties. This metal has the ability to effectively inhibit and kill different bacterial and viral strains upon direct contact, either as coatings or as the surface material itself [2]. This happens due to the release of metallic ions that become toxic to microorganisms at high concentrations, leading to membrane rupture and, therefore, cell death [3].Among the examples that could be shown using Cu for antimicrobial purposes, there is the work by Fujimori and collaborators (2012) that shows the inactivation of the H1N1 influenza virus [4] and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [5] by copper metals and divalent copper ions (Cu II). In addition, a variety of copper alloys have shown the ability to inactivate human coronavirus within a few minutes in some cases [6].Concerning all the above, different polymeric/Cu blends were produced and optimized to achieve their best performance regarding the antimicrobial properties. Author ContributionsConceptualization, C.S. and J.F.A.V.; methodology C.S., H.M. and J.F.A.V.; validation, C.S., H.M. and J.F.A.V.; formal analysis, C.S., H.M. and J.F.A.V.; investigation, C.S., H.M. and J.F.A.V.; resources; writing—original draft preparation, C.S.; writing—review and editing, J.F.A.V.; supervision, A.M., N.A. and J.F.A.V.; funding acquisition, N.A., A.M. and J.F.A.V. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.FundingThis work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and Centro2020 through the following Projects: UIDB/04044/2020, UIDP/04044/2020, UIDB/00709/2020, PAMI-ROTEIRO/0328/2013 (Nº 022158), MATIS (CEN-TRO-01-0145-FEDER-000014) and Centro-01-02B7-FEDER-069244.Institutional Review Board StatementNot applicable.Informed Consent StatementNot applicable.Data Availability StatementNot applicable.Conflicts of InterestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.ReferencesPereira, D.; Carreira, T.S.; Alves, N.; Sousa, Â.; Valente, J.F. Metallic Structures: Effective Agents to Fight Pathogenic Microorganisms. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 1165. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]Sunada, K.; Minoshima, M.; Hashimoto, K. Highly efficient antivi-ral and antibacterial activities of solid-state cuprous compounds. J. Hazard. Mater. 2012, 235, 265–270. 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Human coronavirus 229E remains infectious on common touch surface materials. mBio 2015, 6, e01697-15. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed][Green Version]Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Share and Cite MDPI and ACS Style Santos, C.; Marques, H.; Mateus, A.; Alves, N.; Valente, J.F.A. Polymeric Blends with Copper: A Powerful Weapon against Pathogenic Spread. Mater. Proc. 2022, 8, 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008080 AMA Style Santos C, Marques H, Mateus A, Alves N, Valente JFA. Polymeric Blends with Copper: A Powerful Weapon against Pathogenic Spread. Materials Proceedings. 2022; 8(1):80. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008080 Chicago/Turabian Style Santos, Cyril, Hugo Marques, Artur Mateus, Nuno Alves, and Joana Filipa Abreu Valente. 2022. "Polymeric Blends with Copper: A Powerful Weapon against Pathogenic Spread" Materials Proceedings 8, no. 1: 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022008080 Find Other Styles Article Metrics No No Article Access Statistics Multiple requests from the same IP address are counted as one view.