Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a new virus in coronavirus family that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), emerges as a big threat to the human race. To date, there is no medicine and vaccine available for COVID-19 treatment. While the development of medicines and vaccines are essentially and urgently required, what is also extremely important is the repurposing of smart materials to design effective systems for combating COVID-19. Graphene and graphene-related materials (GRMs) exhibit extraordinary physicochemical, electrical, optical, antiviral, antimicrobial, and other fascinating properties that warrant them as potential candidates for designing and development of high-performance components and devices required for COVID-19 pandemic and other futuristic calamities. In this article, we discuss the potential of graphene and GRMs for healthcare applications and how they may contribute to fighting against COVID-19.

Silver nanoparticles-anchored reduced graphene oxide (Ag-RGO) is prepared by simultaneous reduction of graphene oxide and Ag(+) ions in an aqueous medium by ethylene glycol as the reducing agent. Ag particles of average size of 4.7 nm were uniformly distributed on the RGO sheets. Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is studied on Ag-RGO catalyst in both aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes by using cyclic voltammetry and rotating disk electrode techniques. As the interest in non-aqueous electrolyte is to study the catalytic performance of Ag-RGO for rechargeable Li-O2 cells, these cells are assembled and characterized. Li-O2 cells with Ag-RGO as the oxygen electrode catalyst are subjected to charge-discharge cycling at several current densities. A discharge capacity of 11 950 mA h g(-1) (11.29 mA h cm(-2)) is obtained initially at low current density. Although there is a decrease in the capacity on repeated discharge-charge cycling initially, a stable capacity is observed for about 30 cycles. The results indicate that Ag-RGO is a suitable catalyst for rechargeable Li-O2 cells.

COVID-19 belongs to a typical class of viruses that predominantly affects the human respiratory system, thereby proving to be fatal to many. The virus, along with other air pollutant particulates poses a severe threat to the human respiratory organs. Since the most common transmission mode is respiratory fomites and aerosol particulates, it is necessary to prevent their ingression through a mask. The primary use of masks is to prevent aerial particulates. This paper reveals the development of masks with air filters coated with functionalized graphene (fG) mounted on a 3D-printed facial mask replica. The fused deposition modeling (FDM) process is used for fabricating the facial mask replica. fG associated with nanosheets has an additional adsorbing capacity with a high surface area to volume ratio. fG coat is used over a polypropylene (PP) cloth through a dip coating method to enhance the antiviral and antimicrobial properties. The quality of fG is investigated through Raman spectroscopy and other characterization techniques such as SEM, XRD, and FTIR were used for visual interpretation of distributions of fG on a polypropylene (PP) fabric. Fabricated fG coated MB filters show 98.2 % of bacterial filtration efficiency with 1.10 mbar of breathing resistance. The efficacy of the fG coated filter is tested against SARS-CoV-2 viral particles, which shows a complete arrest of viral transmission at the fG coated layer.

Anopheles stephensi is the most menacing malaria vector to watch for in newly urbanising parts of the world. Its fitness is reported to be a direct consequence of the vector adapting to laying eggs in over-head water tanks with street-side water puddles polluted by oil and sewage. Large frequent inversions in the genome of malaria vectors are implicated in adaptation. We report the genome assembly of a strain of An. stephensi of the type-form, collected from a construction site from Chennai (IndCh) in 2016. The genome reported here with a L50 of 4, completes the trilogy of high-resolution genomes of strains with respect to a 16.5 Mbp 2Rb genotype in An. stephensi known to be associated with adaptation to environmental heterogeneity. Unlike the reported genomes of two other strains, STE2 (2R+b/2Rb) and UCI (2Rb/2Rb), IndCh is found to be homozygous for the standard form (2R+b/2R+b). Comparative genome analysis revealed base-level details of the breakpoints and allowed extraction of 22,650 segregating SNPs for typing this inversion in populations. Whole genome sequencing of 82 individual mosquitoes from diverse geographical locations reveal that one third of both wild and laboratory populations maintain the heterozygous genotype of 2Rb. The large number of SNPs can be tailored to 1740 exonic SNPs enabling genotyping directly from transcriptome sequencing. The genome trilogy approach accelerated the study of fine structure and typing of an important inversion in An. stephensi, putting the genome resources for this understudied species on par with the extensively studied malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae. We argue that the IndCh genome is relevant for field translation work compared to those reported earlier by showing that individuals from diverse geographical locations cluster with IndCh, pointing to significant convergence resulting from travel and commerce between cities, perhaps, contributing to the survival of the fittest strain.