Anti-bacterial Graphene Masks Developed to Fight COVID-19

Graphene masks that have a high anti-bacterial efficiency have been produced by scientists to fight against COVID-19.

The study is produced in the journal ACS Nano.

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‘Graphene masks with an anti-bacterial efficiency of 80%, which can be enhanced to almost 100 % with exposure to sunlight under 10 minutes have been developed. The mask shows promising results in the initial tests in the deactivation of two species of coronavirus.’
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Initial tests of the mask showed promising results in deactivating two species of the coronavirus.

Commonly used masks are not anti-bacterial, which may lead to the risk of developing a secondary bacterial infection when people touch the surfaces of the masks or discard them improperly.

The researchers produced a laser-induced graphene mask. This mask can be easily produced at low cost. It can solve problems of sourcing raw materials and dispose of non-biodegradable masks.

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The research team tested the graphene mask on E.coli, and it achieved high anti-bacterial efficiency of 82%.

The anti-bacterial efficiency of the commonly used materials in the mask, activated carbon fiber and melt-blown fabrics was 2% and 9% respectively.

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Most of the bacteria present on the commonly used mask materials were alive after 9 hours. However, most of the bacteria on the graphene masks were dead after 8 hours.

The graphene masks also showed a higher anti-bacterial capacity for aerosolized bacteria.

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As studies suggest that COVID-19 would lose its infectivity at high temperatures, the research team performed experiments to check if the photothermal property of graphene could enhance the anti-bacterial effect.

The anti-bacterial efficiency of graphene material could be 99.998% within 10 minutes under sunlight. Whereas, activated carbon fiber and melt-blown fabrics only had an efficiency of 67% and 85% respectively.

The exact anti-bacterial mechanism of graphene is unknown. However, the researchers predict that the anti-bacterial mechanism could be linked to the damage of bacterial cell membranes by graphene’s sharp edges and dehydration due to the hydrophobic property of graphene.

The research team is currently working on testing the graphene material on two species of coronavirus.

Their next step is to enhance the anti-virus efficiency and develop a reusable strategy for the mask.

Source-Medindia