TNAU scientist develops sanitiser effective for 25 mins

“The existing alcohol based disinfectants evaporate fast and their duration of efficiency would be for just a couple of minutes depending upon environmental conditions. Our product has been tested and found to last 25 minutes,” said Dr A Lakshmanan, professor and head, Department of Nano Science and Technology, TNAU.

A team of post doctoral researchers led by Dr Lakshmanan under the guidance of Vice Chancellor N Kumar have developed the product with the same Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) formulations for hand sanitisers. However, they added nano-absorbents to it.

“These are extracted from a natural source and absorb the sanitiser components and release them gradually so that it remains in the hand for a longer duration. Upon applying it, even if the person touches a microbial surface after about five minutes, it is effective in killing the pathogens. It has been validated scientifically for its germ killing activity. This too is an alcohol based sanitiser and all its ingredients are as per World Health Organisation (WHO) standards,” he said.

The National Institute of Virology in Pune has also agreed to work with TNAU to test and validate the product following a request by scientists of the university.

“Coimbatore District Collector K Rajamani assured all help for the product to reach the public at the earliest in our combat against COVID-19. I hope the product hits the market within two months and its price could be lower than other sanitisers,” Lakshmanan said.

At present, TNAU has been producing 25 litres of the hand sanitiser daily and distributing it among staff and students in 100 ml bottles. “Soon, TNAU will also seek a patent for the product. It will then be decided whether to produce it on a larger scale or if the technology could be transferred to private firms,” he said.

With the success of this product, the researchers of TNAU have also embarked on a mission to develop a herbal sanitiser and research is under way.