The surgical and other biological instruments are made of Stainless Steel AISI 316L which lacks antimicrobial properties. Copper is coated on Stainless Steel substrate using DC Magnetron sputtering which is used to achieve required film of thickness (0.5-8µm). The deposition pressure, substrate temperature, power supply, distance between the specimen and target are optimized and maintained constant, while the sputtering time (30-110 minutes) is varied. The sputtered copper thin film’s morphology, compositional is characterized by SEM and EDAX. X-ray diffraction analysis shows copper oriented on (111) and (002) and copper oxide on (111) planes. The contact angle of copper thin film is 92° while AISI316L shows 73°. The antimicrobial studies carried in Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia Coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Candida albicans shows that CFU/mL was reduced to 30 after 24 hours. The cell viability is studied by MTT assay test on Vero cell line for 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours and average cell viability is 43.85%. The copper release from the thin film to the culture medium is 4826µg/L (maximum) is estimated from AAS studies. The bacteria and fungi are found to be destroyed by the copper thin film but do not show much reaction with living Vero cells.

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@article{arulkumarncrtam011018,
title = "COPPER THIN FILM SPUTTERED ON AISI 316L FOR ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTY ",
journal = "International Journal of Science and Engineering Applications (IJSEA)",
volume = "NCRTAM",
number = "1",
pages = "79 - 82",
year = "2013",
author = " G. Arulkumar, K.V.Hari Krishnan, A. Kedharnath, S. Kalaiselvam ",
}