REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomaterials
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1644362
Engineering Copper and Copper-Based Materials for a Post-Antibiotic Era
Provisionally accepted
Yingxian Wang1Tongqiang Wen1Fuchao Mao1Shaozhe Yang2Qingwei Zhang2Xiuhong Fu2
Chongkai Zhai1,3*
Hewei Zhang1*- 1Luoyang Vocational and Technical College, Luoyang, China
- 2Luohe Central Hospital, Luohe, China
- 3Medical School, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
In recent years, the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and the frequent outbreaks of novel viral pathogens have intensified the demand for novel, efficient, and low-toxicity antimicrobial materials. Copper and copper-based materials, owing to their broad-spectrum and potent antimicrobial properties, have attracted increasing attention across diverse fields, including medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the development history, antimicrobial and antiviral mechanisms, fabrication techniques, and bioactive characteristics of copper and its derivatives. It further highlights their current applications in healthcare, public infrastructure, food processing, textiles, and modern agriculture. Challenges associated with material stability, cytotoxicity and environmental safety, are critically discussed. Finally, future perspectives are proposed, emphasizing advances in material synthesis, the development of stable nano-coatings, controlled release strategies, low-toxicity and low-resistance formulations, establishment of standardized pharmacological and toxicological evaluation systems, drug delivery applications, and copper pollution control. This review aims to inform future efforts in overcoming the current limitations of copper-based antimicrobials and supporting their potential future integration into applications across medicine, public health, environmental protection, and agricultural innovation, contingent upon resolving current translational and regulatory challenges.
Keywords: copper-based materials, Nanotechnology, surface engineering, Antimicrobial activity, applications
Received: 10 Jun 2025; Accepted: 17 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Wen, Mao, Yang, Zhang, Fu, Zhai and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chongkai Zhai, Medical School, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
Hewei Zhang, Luoyang Vocational and Technical College, Luoyang, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.