COVID-19 : IIT Hyderabad develops its own sanitiser for campus community use

A hand sanitiser has been developed in-house at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad for the benefit of the 2,855 students and 210 full-time faculty on the vast campus.

The sanitizer is prepared by Dr Shivakalyani Adepu, who last month completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, along with Dr Mudrika Khandelwal, Associate Professor in the same department of IIT Hyderabad.

The sanitizer is made in line with the standards recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a Federal Health Agency in the US.

Given the COVID-19 scare, around ten liters of this sanitizer is already made available at locations like faculty lounge, Shiru Café, meeting halls and laboratories. The ready availability makes more people use it and help stop the spread of germs and promote good health and hygiene, IITH officials believe.

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“We made the sanitizer purely to support the community at this critical time to adopt safe and hygienic practices. Our motto is to help people around us and we have not thought of commercialization. We can assure that these are as safe as any commercial sanitizer, and possibly more effective,” Dr Shivakalyani Adepu said.

Courtesy: DataLEADS

Composition of this hand sanitizer is 70 per cent isopropanol with glycerol, polypropylene glycol to increase the viscosity and reduce the volatility so that the sanitizer stays on skin for action. Lemongrass oil is added for antimicrobial activity and therapeutic aroma. The 70 per cent IPA solution penetrates the cell wall, coagulates all proteins, thereby killing the microorganisms.

Dr Khandelwal said, “My research group has always believed in scientific research and outreach for the societal benefit. This is our small contribution at this time of need, and we hope to make similar contributions in future.”

“Our laboratory conducts lot of microbiological studies and we have tested these kinds of materials before and have been using the same for several years now. Its efficacy is well known,” Adepu adds.