INVESTIGATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF MEDICAL GRADE HEPA FILTER WITH COPPER DEPOSITION

Alarming threat in the hospital environment is the nosocomial infections one such to mention is ventilator associated Pneumonia (VAP). The incident of the infection due to micro organisms is increasingly reported even after motivation of appropriate measurement and hygiene practices. The pore size of the HEPA filter (high efficiency particulate air filter) is minimized by depositing copper using DC sputtering by making single, double and triple coating in such a way the sputtering is done for 30 seconds, 1 minute and 1minute 30 seconds. The pore size is reduced significantly from 17.437 µm for uncoated HEPA filter to 4.3811 µm for triple layer copper coated HEPA filter observed using optical microscope and pore size analyzer. The efficiency of the medical grade HEPA filter is compared with the copper coated HEPA filter using microorganism growth test over time which shows the amount of bacteria in the sample. The results of the test incubated for various duration of time shows a control in the bacterial growth for the copper coated HEPA filter than uncoated HEPA filter