The effect of artificial sweat corrosion on the ability of copper, aluminum, and stainless steel foils to inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli.

Due to an increase in antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, new methods for killing bacteria without the use of antibiotics and caustic chemicals are being sought out. Research has shown that some metals can be used as a way to kill bacteria on contact. This experiment was designed to see how well copper, aluminum, and stainless steel were able to inhibit the growth of E.coli after artificial sweat corrosion. This was intended to mimic extended contact with human sweat from handling. It was hypothesised that metal subjected to corrosion would be less effective against bacteria than metal that was not corroded. Pieces of metal foil were corroded in an artificial sweat solution of urea, lactic acid, and distilled water. These along with non-corroded counterparts were submerged in this solution for 72 hours. These strips were placed in inoculated bacterial broth. The inhibition of the bacterial growth were measured using optical density with a spectrovis spectrophotometer. The results were analyzed with an ANOVA at alpha equal to 0.05. This ANOVA (F (6,147)=2.16, p\u3c0.001) showed that the data were significant. To locate the the points of significant difference a scheffe test was conducted and found significant differences between all but several groups. Based on the descriptive statistics collected, however, it can be concluded that the hypothesis was not supported. While the trend of the means seems to support the hypothesis the differences are either insignificant or can be attributed to factors other than antibacterial performance