Domínguez-Meister Santiago, Mediavilla Janire, Dianova Anastasia, Álvarez Noelia, Insausti Sara, Rujas Edurne, Nieva Jose L, Brizuela Marta, Braceras Iñigo
TECNALIA, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Mikeletegi Pasealekua 2, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
Heliyon. 2025 Jan 14;11(2):e41936. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e41936. eCollection 2025 Jan 30.
Surfaces loaded with microbes can contribute to the propagation of a wide variety of pathogens. In this work, the antimicrobial potential of a hard coating (CrN) doped with different proportions of a biocide element (copper) has been studied. The coatings have been deposited by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technology, on stainless steel and glass, materials used profusely in high human traffic environments. The microstructural and mechanical properties of the coatings have been evaluated, their antiviral (VSV-G) and antibacterial (S. Aureus) activities, and the durability of the antimicrobial activity, simulating tribologically two years of standard cleaning processes. It has been found that adding Cu to CrN caused some reduction in the coating hardness and Young's modulus, but an increase in the coating adhesion. The effect on surface wettability depended on the Cu content, which caused a reduction for low Cu values (1.1 and 4.4 at. %), but and increase for larger values (11.5 % at. %). All in all, the CrN-Cu coatings studied showed both antiviral and antimicrobial activity, even for low Cu content (1.1 % at. %). The antimicrobial activity actually rose when the surfaces were subjected to repeated cleaning processes, indication of the robust durability in relevant practical environments.
负载微生物的表面会促使多种病原体传播。在这项工作中，研究了掺杂不同比例杀菌剂元素（铜）的硬质涂层（CrN）的抗菌潜力。这些涂层已通过反应性高功率脉冲磁控溅射（HiPIMS）技术沉积在不锈钢和玻璃上，这两种材料大量用于人员流动频繁的环境中。评估了涂层的微观结构和力学性能、它们的抗病毒（VSV - G）和抗菌（金黄色葡萄球菌）活性，以及抗菌活性的耐久性，模拟了两年标准清洁过程的摩擦学情况。研究发现，向CrN中添加Cu会导致涂层硬度和杨氏模量有所降低，但涂层附着力增加。对表面润湿性的影响取决于Cu含量，低Cu值（1.1和4.4原子%）会导致降低，而较高值（11.5原子%）会导致增加。总体而言，所研究的CrN - Cu涂层即使在低Cu含量（1.1原子%）时也表现出抗病毒和抗菌活性。当表面经过反复清洁过程时，抗菌活性实际上有所提高，表明在相关实际环境中具有强大的耐久性。
