Screening, Manufacturing, Testing and Benchmarking of antiviral health-friendly bio-coating

The transmission of a virus is more pronounced in an indoor environment, specifically various surfaces such as door handles, taps, masks as well as aerosols possess the potential for keeping a lethal virus like the coronavirus active for seven days or beyond. Medical hospitals are particularly risky, as many other known and unknown pathogens can co-exist on these surfaces to accelerate the contagious infection. Our recent findings published in a Journal on the thematic topic of coronavirus (doi.org/10.1016/j.mtchem.2020.100300) shows we can be more resilient in tackling potential future problems for containment of such pathogens, including the novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2). This project will test one of the ideas proposed in the paper to manufacture and benchmark health-friendly antiviral coatings to denature the viruses immediately upon contact. The project will leverage the therapeutic effects of zinc and copper-based hybrid nanomaterials tetrapods structures which will be deposited by spraying method as nanometre thick coatings in various compositions. The project will achieve its primary impact by connecting with various manufacturing industries and Medical Doctor collaborating on the EPSRC Networkplus in Digitalised Surface Manufacturing (Grant: EP/S036180/1) as well as the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (Grant: EP/L016567/1), where the PI is the Co-Director.