ABSTRACT
Copper has already been used by ancient people for antibacterial and antiviral applications. With the developments in textile technology, combining copper and textile by coating becomes one effective method for metallization of the textile material, which enables to realize the antimicrobial property. At present, COVID-19 is widely spreading globally. Developing a kind of material which can inhibit the spread of the novel coronavirus is crucial at present. In this chapter, copper is discussed as a metallization material for textiles for developing disinfection mouth masks or other protective textiles. Copper has been proved for certain bacteria and viruses which have significant effect according to several researches, including Human-Coronavirus 229E. Change in virus survival time or the inhibition of its activity on copper and copper-containing alloys can indicate the antiviral action. The mechanisms, such as Cu(I) and Cu(II) enhanced by reactive oxygen species generation on alloy surfaces and other theories have been discussed. The metallization methods for textile, including the dry process and the wet process, have been discussed in Chapter 10. Developing a safe and effective copper-coated material that inhibits COVID-19 still requires further research.
