Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Antimicrobial Copper Coatings failure

wish i had a kraken!!! - 10-8-2016 at 04:05

Well, actually I had an idea on how to make inexpensive antimicrobial filters and these photos refer to that idea. but I failed !

If you have any idea on why I failed to achive my goal, I'd be more than happy to hear it :-)

I have explained my idea on youtube link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuE-xGX9cFk

1-3.jpg - 359kB 1-4.jpg - 379kB

[Edited on 10-8-2016 by wish i had a kraken!!!]

[Edited on 10-8-2016 by wish i had a kraken!!!]

AJKOER - 10-8-2016 at 08:54

My limited understanding on how the antimicrobial mechanism works on zeolite structures, for example, is that it permits a cycling of copper through valence states (including Cu(0), Cu(l), Cu(ll) ). In the presence of O2, this transition metal valence change can form reactive oxygen species (ROS include the likes of the superoxide radical anion, hydroxyl radical, H2O2..). It is the latter ROS that are primarily and continuingly responsible for disinfecting.

Note, aqueous Cupric salts, like CuSO4 have some toxic properties with respect to bacteria, fungi and algae. As such CuSO4 is directly added at times to swimming pools at low levels as high levels can produce acute pain and poisoning in humans as well.

Here is a not particularly revealing source (as pages are omitted) available at https://books.google.com/books?id=vWWgPhzWUTwC&pg=PA1673&lpg=PA1673&dq=Cu+%2B+Cu(ll)+%3D+2+Cu(l)&source=bl&ots=MNEFwqLVHO&sig= YHyk_F1_iOxHfQq5LDEnji4yjBU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwily-_bnrfOAhWsCMAKHareAJQQ6AEIUTAH#v=onepage&q=Cu%20%2B%20Cu(ll)%20%3D%202%20Cu(l)&a mp;f=false

I strongly advise you do not drink your copper enriched water. My experience with having just allowing spring water to sit in a copper cup for less than a minute and then consuming has led me to stop this practice (powerful and potentially sickening brew depending on the water's pH, CO2 content,...that aid in the dissolution of the copper oxides coating).

[Edited on 10-8-2016 by AJKOER]