Copper nanoparticles are used in wide variety of applications and in the current study we report the antimicrobial activity of these particles. Influence of pH, temperature, aeration rate, concentration of nanoparticles and concentration of bacteria on the toxicity of copper nanoparticles against Escherichia coli have been studied using a centroid mixture design of experiment. The linear and quadratic regression model shows that the toxicity of copper nanoparticles not only depends on the primary effect of the parameters tested (pH, temperature, aeration, concentration of E. coli and concentration of nanoparticles), but also on the interactive effect of these parameters. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.