The effect of rotation accelerated shot peening on mechanical property and antimicrobial activity of pure copper

In this work, we report the use of rotation accelerated shot peening (RASP) to achieve surface nanostructure on copper plate. To systematically investigate the microstructure, mechanical properties, antimicrobial ability and corrosion resistance of the specimens, two kinds of RASP specimens with processing time being 5 min (RASP-5) and 15 min (RASP-15) were employed in this study. A nanostructure layer was formed in the surface of copper specimen after RASP. With prolonging shot time, the size of surface grains decreased and the micro-hardness was significantly improved. The antimicrobial ability of the RASP specimen for E. coli was better than that of the base material, while no obvious difference existed for S. aureus. In electrochemical corrosion tests, it was confirmed that RASP treatment could effectively stimulate the copper ions release from the surface of specimen to increase antimicrobial activity.