Scientists have developed a virus-killing plastic that could make it harder for bugs, including Covid, to spread in hospitals and care homes.
The team at Queen’s University Belfast say their plastic film is cheap and could be fashioned into protective gear such as aprons.
It works by reacting with light to release chemicals that break the virus....
....The material was tested in the laboratory against four types of virus—two influenzas, the Covid virus and a picornavirus, which has the traits that make a virus highly stable outside the body.
In controlled laboratory conditions, about one million virus particles were placed on the self-sterilising plastic. This is far beyond the amount of virus that would be needed to start an infection.
“It goes from one million viruses down to nothing, and we can see an effect in less than one hour and maximum death in two hours,” said Dr Connor Bamford, from the school of medicine at Queen’s.
Sounds like valuable work—good luck! I spotted this recent news story that might be relevant. Any thoughts?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62797775
Thanks Matt, an initial skim of the paper shows some very interesting results, so we’ll certainly look into it!