“Magic material” graphene

“Magic material” graphene can be used for rapid and accurate detection of COVID-19
    According to foreign media reports, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have successfully used graphene, one of the strongest and thinnest materials known, to detect sars-cov-2 virus in laboratory experiments. The findings may be a breakthrough in COVID-19 detection and may be used in the fight against COVID-19 and its variants, researchers say.
    In the experiment, the researchers combined graphene sheets with a thickness of only 1/1000 stamps with a antibody designed to target notorious repute glycoproteins on COVID-19. They then measured the atomic level vibrations of the graphene sheets when they were exposed to both cowid positive and cowid negative samples in artificial saliva. The vibration of antibody coupled graphene sheet changed when treated with positive samples of cowid-19, but did not change when treated with negative samples of cowid-19 or other coronaviruses. The vibration changes measured with a device called a Raman spectrometer are obvious in five minutes. Their findings were published in ACS Nano on June 15, 2021.
    “Society clearly needs better methods to detect covid and its variants quickly and accurately, and this study has the potential to bring real change. The improved sensor has high sensitivity and selectivity to covid, and is fast and low cost Said Vikas berry, senior author of the paper“ The unique properties of “magic material” graphene make it highly versatile, which makes this type of sensor possible.
    Graphene is a kind of new material with SP2 hybrid connected carbon atoms tightly packed into a single-layer two-dimensional honeycomb lattice structure. Carbon atoms are bonded together by chemical bonds, and their elasticity and motion can produce resonance vibration, also known as phonon, which can be measured very accurately. When a molecule like sars-cov-2 interacts with graphene, it changes these resonance vibrations in a very specific and quantifiable way. The potential applications of graphene atomic scale sensors – from detection of covid to ALS to cancer – continue to expand, researchers say.