Preparation and Antibacterial Property of Copper-loaded Activated Carbon Microspheres

Carbon microspheres(CMs) were prepared via a hydrothermal method,and then activated with KOH to form activated carbon microspheres(ACMs).Copper-loaded activated carbon microspheres(Cu-ACMs) were obtained by the direct immersion in CuCl2 aqueous solution.The structure and morphology of ACMs and Cu-ACMs were characterized by XRD,SEM,TEM,EDS,XPS and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms.The experimental results show that the copper valence state of Cu-ACMs samples is Cu2+ ion,and the amount of absorbed copper increases with the increase of copper ion concentration in solution.The addition of ammonia can significantly improve the amount of absorbed copper.The antibacterial activities of as-prepared materials measured indicate that the Cu-ACMs have the good activities to kill E.coli and S.aureus.Therefore,Cu-ACMs is a potential candidate as the antibacterial materials in some applications,such as water treatment,gas filtration and microbial contamination,etc.