Photocatalytic activity of Cu2+/TiO2-coated cordierite foam inactivates bacteriophages and Legionella pneumophila

Hitoshi Ishiguro; Yanyan Yao; Ryuichi Nakano; Masayuki Hara; Kayano Sunada; Kazuhito Hashimoto; Jitsuo Kajioka; Akira Fujishima; Yoshinobu Kubota

doi:10.1016/j.apcatb.2012.09.012

Photocatalytic activity of Cu²⁺/TiO₂-coated cordierite foam inactivates bacteriophages and Legionella pneumophila

Appl Catal B. 2013 Jan 17:129:56-61. doi: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2012.09.012. Epub 2012 Sep 17.

Authors

Hitoshi Ishiguro^{1

2}, Yanyan Yao^{1

2}, Ryuichi Nakano^{1

3}, Masayuki Hara¹, Kayano Sunada⁴, Kazuhito Hashimoto^{4

5}, Jitsuo Kajioka¹, Akira Fujishima^{1

6}, Yoshinobu Kubota^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology, KSP Bldg. West 6F, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan.
² Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, 3-9 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-0004, Japan.
³ Kitasato Research Center for Environment Science, 1-15-1 Kitasato, Minami-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0329, Japan.
⁴ Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
⁵ Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan.
⁶ Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8601, Japan.

Abstract

We investigated the antiviral activity of TiO₂-coated cordierite foam used in air cleaners, as well as the evaluation methodology. Furthermore, we developed Cu²⁺/TiO₂-coated cordierite foam and investigated the reduction in viral infection ratio. The method for evaluation of antibacterial activity of TiO₂-coated cordierite foam could also be applied to evaluation of antiviral activity. We showed that Cu²⁺/TiO₂-coated cordierite foam reduced the viral infection ratio to a greater extent than TiO₂-coated cordierite foam. Our findings suggest that the infection risk by polluted air could be decreased using Cu²⁺/TiO₂-coated cordierite foam in air cleaners.

Keywords: Air cleaning filters; Bacteriophages; Cu2+; EDS, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; Photocatalysis; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; TiO2; TiO2, titanium dioxide; UV, ultraviolet.