Microbial and viral pathogen contamination of touch surfaces contributes to the rapid transmission of diseases. It has been known for decades that microbes and viruses are rapidly inactivated when exposed to copper and its alloys. Consequently, the use of thermal spray technologies to coat surfaces in healthcare and public settings has been receiving a considerable amount of interest during recent viral pandemics and particularly now with COVID-19. This review is focused on recent successes using thermal spray technology to uniformly coat metal and organic surfaces, providing a rapid and economical means of inhibiting fomite transmission of pathogens on diverse surfaces with complex topographies. Emphasis is placed on the influence of lamella structure, porosity, and roughness of the coatings as it pertains to biocidal activity and the implications of using this knowledge to optimize the ability of copper coatings to irreversibly inactivate viral pathogens, regardless of their genomic mutation rates. Results of the long-term performance of the copper alloy coatings in real hospital settings in Canada and Peru are also presented.

接触表面的微生物和病毒病原体污染会导致疾病的快速传播。几十年来，人们都知道微生物和病毒在接触铜及其合金时会迅速失活。因此，在最近的病毒大流行期间，尤其是现在的 COVID-19 疫情期间，使用热喷涂技术在医疗保健和公共环境中涂覆表面受到了极大的关注。本综述重点关注最近使用热喷涂技术均匀涂覆金属和有机表面的成功，提供了一种快速且经济的方法来抑制病原体在复杂地形的不同表面上的传播。重点是涂层的片层结构、孔隙率和粗糙度对杀菌活性的影响，以及利用这些知识优化铜涂层不可逆灭活病毒病原体的能力的影响，无论其基因组突变率如何。还介绍了铜合金涂层在加拿大和秘鲁真实医院环境中的长期性能结果。