The new copper product is the result of a collaborative research project with RMIT University and Australia’s national science agency, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Copper has long been used to fight different strains of bacteria, including the commonly found golden staph, because the ions released from the metal’s surface are toxic to bacterial cells.

But this process is slow when standard copper is used, as RMIT University’s Distinguished Professor Ma Qian explained, and significant efforts are underway by researchers worldwide to speed it up.

“A standard copper surface will kill about 97% of golden staph within four hours. Incredibly, when we placed golden staph bacteria on our specially-designed copper surface, it destroyed more than 99.99% of the cells in just two minutes”, said the researchers.

The team is now looking to investigate the enhanced copper’s effectiveness against SARS-COV-2.