Cellulose coating neutralises COVID virus in minutes

Working alongside Cornwall’s FiberLean Technologies, a specialist in Microfibrillated Cellulose (MFC) applications, the team created a thin film of cellulose fibre invisible to the naked eye, but abrasion-resistant under dry conditions. This makes it suitable for objects such as door handles or handrails that endure a high load of traffic.

Taking a porous MFC developed by FiberLean for the paper and packaging industry, the researchers discovered the pores accelerated the evaporation rate of liquid droplets and introduced an imbalanced osmotic pressure across bacteria membrane. When testing the film for surface transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the team found a three-fold reduction of infectivity when droplets containing the virus were left on the coating for five minutes, with infectivity falling to zero after 10 minutes.

The antimicrobial tests were repeated with droplets containing the bacteria E.Coli and S.epidermidis, with the researchers finding ‘substantial reductions’ in infectivity at one hour and 24 hours. The work is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.