IIT Gandhinagar creates anti-viral coating to fight viral infections

IIT Gandhinagar has come up with a unique invention that can help prevent viral infections among people The premier engineering institute has developed an antiviral coating material that can be easily applied to any surface It is capable to prevent viral infections for a longer period of timeViral infections especially cause diseases such as cold flu measles and chickenpox Sometimes these viral infections can turn into serious and potentially lifethreatening complications Dehydration pneumonia etc are also caused due to such viral infectionsNow a team of researchers from IIT Gandhinagar has successfully developed an antiviral surface coating material This coating material is highly effective against nonpathogenic viruses At the same time it is nontoxic and ecofriendly as well as transparentThis nontoxic surface coating can be easily applied to any indoor and outdoor objects like glass windows wooden and plastic furniture vehicles automobiles door handles etc IIT Gandhinagar told IANSAlso read New virus surge sends younger patients to Spainrsquos hospitalsThis unique material is only a few nanometres thick for which an Indian patent has also been registered However this coating has not yet been tested against coronavirusAfter testing it on frequently touched surfaces the IIT team found that the coatings antiviral ability remained virtually unchanged even after multiple washing Thus it can significantly contribute to improving the public health landscape by preventing viral infection and its transmission from frequently touched surfacesMany current antiviral coatings used copper or silver ions as the main ingredients This makes it difficult in terms of environmental and design aspects as copper is a known toxic substance and is nontransparent This means it would be very challenging to use it for indoor useThe IIT Gandhinagar team that developed this new antiviral surface coating includes Emila Panda Associate Professor Materials Engineering Abhay Raj Singh Gautam Assistant Professor Materials Engineering Virupakshi Sopina Ramalingaswamy Fellow Biological Engineering Nishaben M Patel PhD student Biological Engineering and Ravi Teja Mittireddy PhD student Materials EngineeringThis material is also ecofriendly towards environment Whereas nonstoichiometric shape without nontoxic and essential elements of titanium oxide are present more in the earths crustIn addition this antiviral coating is nearly 45 nanometers thick which can be easily blended on all types of surfacesThe coating has been found to be durable chemically stable and sticks firmly to the substrate It can be easily applied to glass metal steel silicone and Teflon ranging from a variety of indoor and outdoor substratesTalking about the utility of this innovation in future applications Emila Panda Associate Professor Materials Engineering and Principal Investigator PI of the research said The overall results shown by this material for surface coating are promising Being transparent costeffective and ecofriendly it holds huge potential for commercialisation in the coming days The IIT team is currently in the process of testing this coating on various viral and bacterial strains The next step could be to scale up this innovationThe IIT team has also filed for an Indian patent for this unique invention In addition the manuscript based on this work has been published in Elseviers Journal of Alloys and Compounds an international peerreviewed journalThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever