Non antimicrobial touch surface materials such as stainless steel can act as a medium for transmitting
microbes, leading to the increase of hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic-resistant microbes.
Copper can be used to replace the current non-antimicrobial touch surfaces, however, the high cost of
solid copper hampers copper from being the ideal choice. Therefore, stainless steel touch surfaces coated
with copper can become the option for a low cost yet effective alternative. In this study, electrodeposition
technique was used to coat copper on 304 stainless steel surface using 0.01 M CuSO4 solution, at pH 1.
The electrodeposition process was done using chronoamperometry by applying –0.25 V vs. Ag/AgCl for
15 min. Morphological observation revealed that 304 stainless steel surface was uniformly coated with
compact and dense copper. EDAX analysis showed the composition of copper of 98.9 wt. %, ranging
in diameter from 60-90 nm grain size. Thickness of the coating was approximately 105.8 nm. The
antibacterial property of copper coating was analysed by both Gram negative E. coli and Gram positive
S. aureus. Results indicated that copper coating has excellent antibacterial behaviour in destroying both
bacteria. E. coli was more sensitive to the biocidal action of the copper coating of which 100 % reduction
was observed within 5 min of exposure. As for S. aureus, a 100% reduction was achieved only after 10
min of exposure.
Many kinds of substrates have been used to investigate bioelectricity production with Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). Dry algae biomass has the highest maximum power density compared to other substrates due to high carbon sources from its lipid. However, the bacterial digestion of algae biomass is not simple because of the complexity and strength of the algal cell wall structure. An algae biomass extraction is needed to break the cell wall structure and facilitate digestion. Spray drying method is commonly used in highvalue products but may degrade some algal components which are crucial for microbial degradation in MFC, while the freeze-drying method is able to preserve algal cell constituents. The MFC was fed with freeze dried and spray dried algae biomass to produce energy and determine the degradation efficiency. Results showed the average voltage generated was 739 mV and 740 mV from freeze dried and spray dried algae biomass, respectively. The maximum power density of freeze dried algae biomass is 159.9 mW/m2 and spray dried algae biomass is 152.3 mW/m2. Freeze dried algae biomass has 54.2% of COD removal and 28.4% of Coulombic Efficiency while spray dried algae biomass has 50.1% of COD removal and 24.9% of Coulombic Efficiency.