Conclusions
One of the recent developments in photocatalyst involves the interfacial charge transfer through two or three binary oxides. This implies electrostatic attraction, van der Waals forces, and hydrophobic–hydrophilic interactions. Ag- and Cu-NPs/ions have been shown to diffuse trough the bacterial membrane through the cell wall porins damaging the cell. Metal/oxide surface-contact effects with the bacterial cell envelope are the other mechanism leading to bacterial inactivation. This proceeds through changes in the cell shape, surface potential, pH surrounding the bacteria, cell wall permeability and destruction of the bacterial cell wall functional groups. Cu- and Ag-NPs and recently more advanced Cu-Ag-NPs materials have been presented in this review. However, the full bactericidal inactivation mechanism is still not understood. The bacterial cell membrane is both a barrier and a channel for the inward and outward movement of chemical species with sizes below the porin diameters. In the gram-negative bacterial membrane structure, porins allow the passage of molecules < 600 Da, in and out of the bacteria. Standard methods of analysis are still needed allowing a quantitative comparison of the inactivation data obtained by different laboratories.