Tea–Essential Oil–Metal Hybrid Nanocoatings for Bacterial and Viral Inactivation [dataset]

Natural plant-derived antimicrobial nanocoatings have been synthesised by mixing brewed tea with cinnamaldehyde oil. Concurrent addition of copper or silver salts produces hybrid tea–cinnamaldehyde–copper and tea–cinnamaldehyde–silver nanocoatings respectively. Tea–cinnamaldehyde, tea–cinnamaldehyde–copper, and tea–cinnamaldehyde–silver coatings are all found to display strong antibacterial efficacy against both Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive S. aureus (Log10 Reduction = 8.44 and 7.90 respectively). Tea–cinnamaldehyde–copper and tea–cinnamaldehyde–silver hybrid nanocoatings deposited onto non-woven polypropylene provide 98.6 % and 99.8 % deactivation respectively towards murine coronavirus MHV-A59 (a potential surrogate for COVID-19 global pandemic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2). Key advantages of this approach are that the coating fabrication involves just a single-step, utilises cheap reagents (which are widely available over the counter to the general public), does not require any equipment apart from a container, and the coatings spontaneously adhere to a variety of substrate materials (including silicon, glass, polyester, non-woven polypropylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, and cotton). Tea is one of the most ubiquitous beverages in the world, meaning that these antimicrobial coatings could be produced locally almost anywhere and by anyone without the need for any specialised technical training or expertise (for example, at remote field hospitals during humanitarian crises and in low-income countries).