An example of some of the research we do in engineering. I collaborated on a small project to test how to apply antimicrobial copper coatings to the rubbery surfaces of escalator handrail materials, using a technology called “cold spray”. It’s essentially a high velocity shot of copper particles onto the surface, and my mechanical engineering colleague Prof. Jahed led the project with his expertise in this area. Getting metallic materials to permanently stick onto rubbery materials is no easy task, but this approach seemed to work pretty well. There are a lot of microscopic technical issues that need to be understood.

My other colleague, Prof. Marc Aucoin from Chemical Engineering and I helped assess the anti-viral and antibacterial efficacy of the material after coating. Basically we showed that it was pretty good and various viruses and bacteria died off at very respectable levels (over 99.99%) when exposed to the surfaces.

This was a nice collaborative project involving professors, students and other researchers from mechanical and chemical engineering, and a combination of materials science, virology and microbiology. The resulting article was published last year in the Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, and was recently picked as one of 6 “Editors Choice” articles in 2023 in that journal. Anyone can now read it without a subscription, at this link. I’m not sure where this might lead next, but it’s a small step forward in potentially reducing disease transmission in public areas.