Design, characterize and validate a new multifunctional coating, with antiviral and antibacterial properties for COVID‑19 pandemic
Viruses are among the most harmful pathogens to the human population and are responsible for the death of millions of people every year. In 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China were identified as a novel beta coronavirus, and the disease it caused was termed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID‑19 has quickly evolved into a global pandemic in just over two months. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes that the world faces the most challenging crisis since World War II, confronting a pandemic threatening people in every country that probably has no parallel in the recent past. The COVID‑19 transmission could be mitigable with physical and chemical sanitization, such as spraying or wiping. However, sanitization is labor- and materials-intensive, impractical for covering all exposed areas, and needs to be reapplied periodically. Therefore, it will be useful to develop the self-sanitizing surfaces that can slowly release disinfecting chemicals to mitigate fomite transmission. Such coatings should be durable against rubbing and washing, long-lasting, and nontoxic and should be easily applied on the surfaces of already-installed objects that people frequently touch.
This project targets to explore multifunctional antibacterial and antiviral coating through an encapsulated alkaline solution incorporated in a superhydrophobic coating. This coating can effectively improve antibacterial/antiviral performance over the long term, can guarantee the suitable release of bactericide and virucidal agents over time, and can consequently strongly impair the risk of COVID‑19 diseases.
