Role of Graphene and Graphene Derived Materials to Fight with COVID-19

*Vamsi Krishna Kudapa, Ajay Mittal, Ishita Agrawal, Tejendra K. Gupta and Rajeev Gupta*

### **Abstract**

The COVID-19 pandemic is a genuine biosafety occasion that is causing an extreme effect on the worldwide society and economy. Various challenges associated with the outbreak of this pandemic include diagnosis, prevention, and proper medication. Engineered nanomaterials such as graphene and graphene derived materials could be the potential solution in preventing COVID-19. This study endeavors how the improvement of novel materials can assist researchers with handling the difficulties in biosafety. In recent years, 2D graphene had caught much consideration due to its efficient electrical properties and encouraging presentations, comprising methods to combat or identify drug-resistant bacterial contaminations. The bacteria lose its integrity when exposed to the graphene surface because of its efficient viral inhibition tendency.

**Keywords:** graphene, contact angle, superhydrophobic, mask, COVID-19

#### **1. Introduction**

Graphene belongs to the group of carbon comprising of a single layer of atoms organized in a 2D honeycomb structure [1]. Pristine graphene usage is limited due to its difficulty in bottom-up synthesis [2], lesser solubility [3], and the lower tendency of accumulation due to had proved challenging due to difficult van der Waals interactions [4]. To overcome the above limitations, alternative compounds may be derived from graphite or other carbon sources through top-down approaches, which can also incorporate functionalized oxygen groups on its surface. The protonated solvents has the tendency to form multi-layered graphene oxide by the process of graphene oxidation, which contains hexagraphene oxidenal based graphene structure. These derivatives are proven as efficient fillers in several polymer nanocomposite materials because of their uniform distribution across the polymer matrices [5]. This property has increased the functionality of graphene derivatives in paints, efficient and precise sensors, flexible displays, efficient solar panels, packing materials [6], sensitive electronic devices prevention [7], for resisting the corrosion on different materials [8] and in bio-imaging, biosensors, antibacterial agents, 3D bio printing, photo thermal therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy, and tissue engineering (**Figure 1**) [9].

#### **Figure 1.**

*Role of graphene in the area of bio-imaging, biosensors, antibacterial agents, 3D bio printing, photo thermal therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy and tissue engineering. Reprinted with the permission from [9].*

Palmeri and Papi [10] studied different ways of interactions between various graphene-based materials and the viruses, which reveals that the graphene-based materials, can help in killing or blocking the viruses. Several recent studies have also revealed that graphene derivatives can be considered as a potential material for protecting from the COVID-19 virus [10, 11].
