Copper has long been known as a metal with outstanding antimicrobial properties. Although ancient healers were not familiar with the mechanisms of its influence on microorganisms, they had empirically established its effectiveness in sterilizing drinking water, disinfecting wounds, treating skin diseases, various infections and other maladies. Recently, there has been renewed interest in investigating copper and its alloys as possible materials that can limit the spread of bacteria and viruses, given that humanity is often facing various local epidemics, and rarely pandemics, as ongoing Corona virus, SARS CoV-2, first detected in March 2020. This paper reviews the recent literature in the research field of antimicrobial properties of metallic copper, its alloys and other copper - based materials, with the aim to promote their future implementation on contact surfaces, primarily in hospitals and institutions with a high frequency of people where the probability of spreading infection is increased.

Lead-free solders have become a main focus of the electronic industry in recent years, because of the high toxicity of lead. Alloys based on the Sn-Bi system figure as potential replacements for Sn-Pb alloys in soldering due to favorable properties and low cost. One of the main advantages of these alloys are low melting temperatures, while additional advantages include good compatibility with substrates, low process temperature, high reliability, and potential applications in conjunction with reduced graphene oxide nanosheets as thermal interface materials. In this paper, characterization of microstructural and thermal properties as well as hardness measurements of seven alloys of different Sn-Bi compositions are performed. Structural properties of the samples were analyzed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Thermal conductivity of the samples was investigated using the xenon-flash method, and phase transition temperatures were measured using the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis.

Obilježavanje 170 godina od smrti Petra II Petrovića Njegoša (1813–1851) prilika je da se utvrde dosadašnji dometi njegošologije, koji svjedoče o Njegoševom nepojmljivom umotvornom potencijalu, o kompleksnosti njegovog ukupnog prosvjetiteljskog djelovanja i o njegovoj pjesničkoj poziciji, ali i da se otvore novi horizonti i mogućnosti za ispitivanje do sada nedovoljno istraženih ili neopravdano zapostavljenih kodova Njegoševog poetskog opusa.