Evaluation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Generated on the Surface of Copper Using Chemiluminesence

The antibacterial activity of copper is well-known from an ancient civilization, however, its biocidal mechanism has not been necessarily elucidated. Notwithstanding up to now, mainly 4 processes have been proposed. Among them, it is cleared that 4 kinds of reactive oxygen species (ROS): hydroxyl radical ·OH, hydrogen per oxide H2O2, superoxide anion ·O-2 and singlet oxygen 1O2, play an important role for contact-killing of bacteria, viruses and fungi. In this paper, generation of ROS on the surfaces of copper plates heated from room temperature to 673 K for 4.2 × 102 s in air, was investigated using the chemiluminescence. ROS have been evaluated by selecting the most suitable scavengers, such as 2-propanol for ·OH, sodium pyruvate for H2O2, nitro blue tetrazolium for ·O-2, and sodium azide NaN3 for 1O2. At the same time the outermost surface of copper, on which thin film of cuprous oxide Cu2O was first formed and then cupric oxide CuO was laminated on Cu2O, was examined by thin-film XRD and TEM analysis to estimate the amounts and kinds of copper oxides. It was found that the most amounts of ROS were obtained for the 573 K-heated Cu plate and they were composed of ·OH, H2O2, and ·O-2.