Researchers have synthesised a graphene-based nanocoat that can be smeared on the surface of medical devices and implants to prevent bacterial growth on these materials, offering a way to check device- and implant-related diseases1.
Disease-causing microbes frequently grow on medical devices and implants, posing serious health risks to patients. Such device- and implant-related infections lead to huge financial losses. Existing materials used as antimicrobial coats are mostly toxic.
In search of a safe antimicrobial coating, scientists from the CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai, and , led by Sujoy K Das, prepared reduced graphene oxide using a specific mould and then modified the graphene with a protein. They then used the modified graphene as a nanocoat on a glass surface and tested its potential to kill microbes.
When the graphene-coated surface was exposed to Escherichia coli , it killed 94% of the bacteria within four hours. The graphene nanocoat was found to be biocompatible. The nanocoat also repelled water – a property potentially useful for preventing the bacterial attachment on the surface.
The graphene nanocoat provides a novel way to make nontoxic antimicrobial coating that can be spread on the surface of medical devices to stop bacterial infection, says lead researcher Das.
