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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

A quantum dot–powered material could help reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections, including those with drug-resistant bacteria.

A new material that harnesses the power of ambient light to produce bacteria-killing molecules could help stem the spread of hospital infections, including those with drug-resistant bacteria.

About 1 in 10 patients worldwide get an infection while receiving treatment at a hospital or other health care facility, according to the World Health Organization. "Contaminated hospital surfaces play a key role in spreading those infections," said Ethel Koranteng, a chemist at University College London, on April 5 at the Materials Research Society spring meeting.

Koranteng and colleagues developed a material to make hospital surfaces self-disinfecting. Naturally antimicrobial metals such as copper and steel are difficult to sculpt around uneven surfaces. But the new polymer-based material could be fashioned into a flexible film that covers computer keyboards, or molded into rigid, plasticlike casings that enclose phone handles, bedrails and other surfaces especially prone to contamination.

Source:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/material-uses-energy-ambient-light-kill-hospital-superbugs

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