After IIT-Hyderabad, now IIT-Madras has stepped up to combat the COVID-19 challenge!
Muse Nanobots, a tech startup and a subsidiary of Muse Wearables which is also an IIT-Madras-incubated firm, has come up with a nanotech coating for textiles. This coating claims to inactivate the coronavirus within 5 minutes of contact.
This nano-coated textile aims to provide enhanced protection as India has started opening businesses after months of COVID-19 lockdown.
Muse nano-coated textiles can protect frontline warriors, hospitals, restaurant workers, hotels as well as common people who have started travelling.
Before launching, Muse Nanobots conducted a study with Situ Biosciences – an independent US-based ISO 170205-accredited product test laboratory – in order to understand the effectiveness of newly developed antiviral coating on coronavirus.
The study, as Muse Nanobots claims, showed the coating inactivated 99.99 per cent of coronavirus just under 5 minutes from the time of contact. Since ISO 18184 is the international standard to determine antiviral properties of textiles, the study followed this system.
According to the developers, the coated textile does not leach when it’s washed. Currently, materials such as cotton, polyester and blend of cotton-polyester can be coated. “It is non-toxic coating material, therefore, it can be used for making masks as well as other PPEs,” commented developers.
Muse Nanobots provides direct installation facility at the partner locations and, apart from that, the tech startup also has a coating facility in Bengaluru where the textile firms can submit their fabrics to be treated with the antiviral coating.
The tech startup of IIT Madras now has plans to open three more coating facilities by the end of September 2020 across India (in different cities) in order to cater to the demand of textile coating and faster turnaround time.
