RAPID: Antimicrobial Coatings for the mitigation of virus transmission on high-touch surface

非技术摘要拟议工作的目标是通过开发新的抗菌材料来限制新冠肺炎病毒和流感病毒的传播。这项工作的重点是可以用来涂覆有规律接触的表面的金属合金。这种表面是病毒传播的主要原因，因为它们被感染者污染，并在两个人之间没有任何直接接触的情况下等待感染健康人。一种有效的抗菌涂层可以通过释放氧化铜来显著缩短病毒在这种表面上存活的时间，并以这种方式将传播的可能性降至最低。在这项工作中，重点是平衡材料的抗微生物行为与涂层的其他关键方面，特别是腐蚀和钝化行为，表面准备，以及清洁的影响。表面准备和清洁是重要因素，因为任何涂层在实际环境中都是坚固和有效的，这是至关重要的。通过对腐蚀行为的透彻了解，可以更好地了解抗菌行为的科学基础，并使未来针对其他病毒或适当广谱地应对各种病毒的涂层的开发成为可能，从而可以通过这一策略来应对未来大流行的威胁。这项工作的目标是确定作为涂层的抗菌功能铜基合金在降低细菌和病毒在高接触表面的存活率方面的有效性。减轻病毒活性的过程取决于释放的铜离子浓度、合金的释放速率以及电化学反应产生的氧自由基，以及病毒的性质、浓度和接种量。这些反应和铜的命运取决于合金成分和表面结构、形貌的细节，以及通过预处理和环境暴露产生的被动氧化物表面膜的性质。给定的铜阳离子浓度会降低病毒的活性，这取决于环境因素和病毒属性。因此，在这项工作中，使用代表SARS-CoV-2的病毒以及流感病毒株的调色板来研究病毒的生存能力。使用司法选择的铜基合金和预期的表面处理作为起点，这些合金的抗菌性能，通过暴露时间的病毒单位死亡来判断，将作为合金成分和表面处理产生的表面特征的函数来确定。进行了详细的表面和电解液表征，以阐明腐蚀机理的细节，从而使病毒得以缓解。这项工作旨在通过回答最佳合金成分和处理的问题，以及影响未来进一步优化这一功能的合金的科学原理，使特定的铜合金能够立即选择用于部署作为高接触表面。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Non-technical AbstractThe goal of the proposed work is to limit the transmission of the COVID-19 virus and influenza virus through the development of new antimicrobial materials. The work focuses on metal alloys that can be used to coat regularly touched surfaces. Such surfaces are a major contributor to the spread of a virus as they become contaminated by an infected individual and lay in wait to infect a healthy person without any direct contact between the two individuals. An effective antimicrobial coating can dramatically reduce the length of time a virus can survive on such surfaces through release of oxidized copper and in that way minimize the likelihood of transmission. In this work, the focus is on balancing the antimicrobial behavior of the materials with the other critical aspects of a coating, specifically, the corrosion and passivation behavior, the surface preparation, and the impact of cleaning. Surface preparation and cleaning are important factors since it is vital that any coating be robust and effective in real-world environments. By obtaining a thorough understanding of the corrosion behavior, it becomes possible to better understand the science underlying the antimicrobial behavior and enables the future development of coatings either targeted to other viruses or suitably broad-spectrum to address a wide range of viruses so that the threat of future pandemics can be addressed by this strategy.Technical AbstractThe goal of this work is to determine the efficacy of antimicrobial functional copper-based alloys deployed as coatings in reducing the survivability of bacteria and viruses on high-touch surfaces. The process of mitigating virus viability is dependent on the concentration of copper ions released, the rate of release from the alloys as well as oxygen radicals produced as a result of electrochemical reactions, and the nature, concentration, and inoculum of the virus. These reactions and the fate of copper depend on alloy composition and the details of surface structure, morphology, and the nature of the passive oxide surface film produced by pretreatments and ambient exposure. A given copper cation concentration reduces virus viability depending on environmental factors and virus attributes. Hence, in this work virus viability is investigated using a palette of viruses representative of SARS-CoV-2 as well as influenza strains. Using a judicial selection of copper-based alloys and expected surface treatments as the starting point, the antimicrobial performance of these alloys, judged by virus unit death over time of exposure will be determined as a function of alloy composition and surface character produced by surface preparation. Detailed surface and electrolyte characterization is carried out to elucidate the details of the corrosion mechanism, which enable virus mitigation. This work seeks to enable the immediate selection of specific copper alloys for deployment as high-touch surfaces by answering the question of optimal alloy composition and treatment as well as affect future scientific principles of alloys further optimized for this function.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.