Graphene Also Has The Special Function Of Repelling Mosquitoes. Do You Know?

As two dimensional nanomaterials, graphene has excellent physical and chemical properties. It is the thinnest and hardest nanomaterial found by mankind at present. Its hardness is 200 times that of steel. It has excellent electrical and optical properties, and its resistivity is only 10. ^-6 Omega m is the material with the lowest resistivity in the world. Its thermal conductivity is good, and its thermal conductivity at room temperature reaches 5300 W / (M. K), exceeding the limit of bulk graphite, carbon nanotubes and diamond equivariant, far exceeding silver, copper and other metal materials. Its specific surface area is very high, its adsorption capacity is excellent, and its adsorption capacity for lead is as high as 800 mg/g, far higher than that of activated carbon.

Graphene as a very flexible super "omnipotent" material can be used to manufacture solar cells, bulletproof vests, night vision devices, etc. Recently, a study in the US showed that graphene derivatives, graphene oxide, also had mosquito repellent effects. When the test was coated with transparent graphene oxide film on the skin surface, it was found that very few mosquitoes would stay on the surface of dried graphene oxide films. Even if the mosquitoes stayed, it was difficult to Pierce graphene oxide films, which means that graphene oxide could be a barrier to mosquito.

It is worth noting that the mosquitoes would have identified the location of the target by detecting the chemical composition on the skin, but when the tester wrapped the clothes made of graphene oxide, the mosquitoes could not bite the skin that was not protected, and they would not bite the skin that was exposed outside.

The study's lead author, Dr. Cintia Castilho, said: "We thought that graphene oxide was a physical barrier that could prevent mosquito bites, but when we finished these experiments, we began to think that graphene oxide is also a chemical barrier that makes mosquitoes feel less human. "

Dr William Suk, a NIEHS Superfund research program, said that the results of this study can promote the development of new mosquito repellent clothing, so that people in the tropics can reduce the risk of mosquito borne infectious diseases such as dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis, and reduce the number of mosquito repellent products, which will not affect the nervous system due to excessive spraying.