Scientists have developed a sterilizing graphene filter that captures microbes and their harmful products from the air and destroys them. They envisage the device being useful in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

Scientists may have found a way to trap and kill bacteria in hospital settings.

Each year, around 1 in 25 patients in the United States acquire at least one infection due to hospital care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A recent paper in the journal ACS Nano describes the self-sterilizing graphene filter and how it performed in tests.

The device is the brainchild of study senior author James M. Tour, Ph.D., and his team at Rice University in Houston TX, where Tour holds professorships in materials science and nanoengineering, as well as chemistry and computer science.

"So many patients become infected by bacteria and their metabolic products, which, for example, can result in sepsis while in the hospital," says Prof. Tour.

The filter incorporates laser-induced graphene (LIG) technology. Graphene is a form of carbon that is extremely thin, very strong, and able to conduct electricity.

Graphene has many applications, which, in addition to medicine, can range from digital electronics to aerospace engineering.

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