Cu bearing stainless steels (Cu SS) possess antibacterial ability due to the release of Cu2+ ions. However, the release mechanism of Cu2+ ions from the steel is still unclear. Therefore, the passive film on the surface of Cu SS, the reason of Cu2+ ions release and chemical reactions during Cu2+ ions release were studied by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis and electrochemical measurements. According to the results, the release mechanism of Cu2+ ions release from the Cu SS can be proposed as following: Cu rich phases in the steel promote the segregation of surrounding C and Cr to form Cr23C6, which affects the integrity and stability of the Cr2O3 passive film surrounding themselves. Thus, the Cu rich phases are easy to be attacked as weak points in the corrosive media, which led to serial chemical reactions occurring while promoting the releases of Cu2+ ions and playing the antibacterial role.
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Zhang et al. (2014) studied this question.
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