Abstract
New and fascinating physical, chemical and biological phenomena arise in ultra-small materials, such as graphene. Graphene is a single layer formed only for carbon atoms, super-strong, 200 times stronger than steel and as much as 6 times lighter. It also has a high elasticity and density. Furthermore, it seems to be impermeable to almost everything, but allows the passage of water and air. Due to its versatility, modern and urgent applications arise every day, one of the most necessary, currently, is the control of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV- 2), the virus responsible for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has dimensions around 100 nm and has caused a worldwide public health emergency. Different ways to prevent coronavirus contagion has proposed and one of them is the use of masks. Here, we investigated some properties of graphene that can help combat COVID-19. A scale appropriate for comparison shows that the spatial dimension of a virus is much larger than the graphene sheet, making it a great candidate for manufacturing face masks, filters and respirators. We also make use of firstprinciples calculations, based on the density functional theory (DFT), to investigate the interaction between graphene and a water molecule. We observed that the water molecule undergoes a repulsion force when it is very close to the graphene sheet. The hydrophobicity of graphene can be important to prevent the face mask that doesn’t get wet when you breathe with it.
Keywords: COVID-19, graphene, mask, DFT, hydrophobicity, water.
Graphical Abstract
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