Graphene For Epidemic Prevention

Graphene may become the natural enemy of an epidemic!

With the global outbreak of new pneumonia in 2020, people around the world began to wear masks and wash their hands frequently, and changes in traditional ideas seem to be taking place. People’s attention to public health has reached an unprecedented height, the most obvious in the field of medical protective equipment. Taking the n95 mask as an example, pm2.5 has been valued by people a few years ago, but the demand for highly protective masks at that time was not as high as it is today. In addition, there are some protective products such as disinfectant wipes and alcohol hand sanitizer . Starting from this year, people choose to use these protective equipment, it seems to really pay attention to the importance of protection.

Recently, new graphene materials have been applied to protective articles. Many experts even believe that graphene may become the natural enemy of the epidemic, and the use of graphene materials in protective equipment will become an inevitable trend in the future.

Graphene has excellent optical, mechanical, and electrical properties, and has important application prospects in the fields of aerospace, energy, and biopharmaceuticals. In the application field of protective articles, graphene and its derivatives have the advantages of excellent broad-spectrum antibacterial and antiviral capabilities, good biocompatibility, and simple preparation process.

Two kinds of daily protective products against the most recent epidemic of new coronary pneumonia, they are masks to protect against respiratory transmission and sexually transmitted TT. The mask is a graphene material applied on the meltblown cloth. The high surface energy of the graphene makes the electrostatic absorption capacity of the polypropylene meltblown cloth stronger and the air passes normally. All will be attracted by static electricity. The second distinguishing feature of graphene is even more obvious when it comes to preventing TT epidemic transmission. Graphene is disorderly arranged on natural latex, and the unique end structure of graphene is incomplete. It acts on protective equipment and is more like a natural “nano knife”. Graphene can destroy the cell walls of pathogens and play a good bactericidal effect. This makes the virus without cell structure lose its host, cannot replicate itself, and is blocked from the dense graphene shield.

“In terms of the principle that the virus can be copied by contacting the host, the use of nano-knife is more advantageous for effectively blocking the infection of the host itself.” A doctor of Beijing Aerospace Hospital said cautiously.

According to the basic characteristics of graphene, it is very suitable for use in medical or daily protective products. Because almost all infectious diseases are caused by the spread of bacteria or viruses, and graphene has the strongest natural barrier, electrostatic adsorption and the ability to cut very small microorganisms. At present, in the field of graphene medical and daily protective products, the graphene TT developed by Liaoning Greifel has been listed, and the graphene mask developed by the China Aviation and Aeronautical Materials Institute has entered the experimental stage. Others such as medical gloves, goggles, etc. are already in the research and development stage. In the future, graphene medical protective materials will be a must-have for the general public.