Development of Graphene coated Antibacterial Nonwoven Fabric for Medical Applications.

Project Title

Development of Graphene coated Antibacterial Nonwoven Fabric for Medical Applications.

Project Area of Specialization Wearables and ImplantableProject Summary

According to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control 2018 report, 33000 people die every year worldwide due to bacterial diseases. Therefore, in today’s world Hygiene is a very important issue in all over the globe, especially developing countries like Pakistan. Also, with the discoveries of newer, uncurable virus like coronavirus appearing recently in China and spreading all over the world needs lot more than what is being done in our country right-now. Therefore, hygiene should be given utmost important in medical applications. However, antibacterial fabrics being used in Pakistan in hospitals are purchased from other countries and are not produced in our local industry and are very costly. Also, it is noted that the textiles used in medical application are more likely to be disposable, which makes their use more costly and therefore it is important that these materials be made indigenously which may lower the cost of the antibacterial fabrics and help build the technology that may be used to establish the industry in Pakistan and export such materials and improve the hygiene conduction in our government hospitals. We aim to develop these antibacterial fabrics indigenously in Pakistan and at MUET, Jamshoro.

Project Objectives

? To synthesize graphene nanomaterial for antibacterial activity.
? To coat and develop antibacterial nonwovens.
? To measure the activity of the developed antibacterial nonwoven fabric.

Project Implementation Method

The starting material will be graphite and shall be oxidized chemically to convert it in the solution form with different concentrations and it will be applied through coating techniques on the nonwoven fabric. Nonwoven fabric is choses for its less expensive production and ease of applying graphene oxide onto it. Afterwards, the antibacterial activity of the fabric will be assessed, characterized and optimized. Further a way forward will be given to produce the bedsheets and gowns and other materials to be used in the hospitals. Other chemical required, will be sulfuric acid, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide and ethanol, which will be provided by the nonwoven materials lab at the Department of Textile Engineering. Nonwoven fabric will be purchased from the local industry and the graphite will be oxidized through modified Hummer’s method using fume and the said chemicals. The recipe and the process parameters will be given in detail in the report after completion of the project. Dyeing padder shall be used to coat the fabric with Graphene oxide, and the assessment of the antibacterial activity will also be carries using the autoclave, dryer and the incubator.

Benefits of the Project

There is no established industry in Pakistan to produce antibacterial materials which makes us dependent onto buying the antibacterial materials from other countries making them expensive too and we also are not able to customize them according to our needs. Therefore, the key benefits of working on this is to first use our grown natural material like cotton nonwovens to and to coat them with low cost graphene oxide material and develop a padding method, which is already established method of the current textile finishing industry. As the coating method is already established in Pakistan, therefore, the target product may be made easily in our country. We propose the use of dyeing padder, commonly used in textile industry, having very high accuracy with respect to the uptake of the dyeing solution by the fabric substrate. Hence, the solution can be coated on the fabric with the required quantity and evenness. We propose that the graphene oxide nanosheets (GONs) will be coated evenly on the fabric surface and mimic its production in bulk. Also, with this method the product developed will have better evenness.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

A new route/technique will be developed to produce locally manufactured antibacterial nonwovens in Pakistan and for the local industry to be used in biomedical applications. The deliverable will be coated with low-cost antibacterial material to sustain certain washes and hold antibacterial activity, which can be used to wear other hospital supplies like, bed sheets, pillow covers, gowns,mask and gloves.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry MedicalOther Industries Health Core Technology Wearables and ImplantablesOther Technologies Clean TechSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for PeopleRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	80000
Graphite powder	Miscellaneous	1	4400	4400
Sulfuric acid	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000
Hydrogen peroxide	Miscellaneous	1	1600	1600
Incubator	Equipment	1	60000	60000
Hydrochloric acid	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000
Cotton non woven fabric(1 meter)	Miscellaneous	2	1000	2000
Vaccum pump	Equipment	1	10000	10000