Electrochemical production of antibacterial cu-ag composites in non-aqueous media, and their characterization

Steel is the major component of the durable material group in the simplest sense, and is used in all areas, from medical applications to food production transport systems. However, steels consisting of different alloying elements can prepare a suitable media for bacterial formation and reproduction, like many surfaces. Therefore, research on antibacterial technologies has crucial importance. Recently, studies on antibacterial metal alloys have shown that metal alloys containing Cu and Ag have antibacterial effects. The aim of this study is to obtain an antibacterial Cu-Ag alloy by electrochemical coating in deep eutectic solvents, which have been found in the literature as green liquids, and to examine some of the antibacterial properties of the obtained coatings. In this study, deep eutectic solvents were employed as electrolytic medium, and the substrate material to be electrochemically coated was chosen as AISI 430 series steel. Electrochemical analyzes of the prepared solutions were carried out with a potentiostat device, and the surface morphology of the obtained coatings was carried out with a high resolution optical microscope and SEM-EDS devices. As a result, Cu-Ag alloys over 20 μm were obtained on the steel substrate, and in antibacterial analyzes, the concentration of Salmonella bacteria was negatively affected by the decrease in the silver ratio, but this effect was not observed against Pilisteria monocytogenes bacteria. In general, it has been detected that different silver ratios have different effects on the coating surfaces according to different bacteria types. Clearly, it has been shown that metals coated with Cu-Ag alloys have antibacterial effects, and will be favorable using on steel surfaces applied from medical applications to the food sector.