Bionic Technology Assists the Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic

On February 7, 2020, Qin Yanguo, Vice Dean of the Second Hospital of Jilin University, led the third batch of medical teams and protective materials to assist Wuhan. Among them, the bionic anti-fog goggles, protective masks and other mirror equipment, independently innovated and developed by Prof. Zhao Jie’s team from the Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Jilin University), Ministry of Education and the Institute of Bionics Science and Engineering, were also take part in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic on the front lines.

In the early stage of the pandemic, medical staff continued to receive a large number of patients and found that the traditional goggles were fogged seriously, which brought great inconvenience to the diagnosis and treatment. To solve the problem of easy atomization and cross infection, Prof. Zhao’s team developed bionic anti-fog goggles inspired by the phenomenon that aquatic plant veins absorb water quickly without dew staying. The goggles use the surface technology of semi-penetrating polymer network of hydrophilic-hydrophobic material units, which has stable structure, controllable preparation process, good anti-fog effect and high biological safety. It provides a guarantee for the safe, convenient and efficient anti-COVID-19 pandemic work, and realizes the maximization of resource efficiency.

Facing the pandemic, researchers undertook more responsibility. Prof. Zhao said that when fully sealed and wearing goggles and masks for a long time, the water vapor brought out by breathing and the sweat of volatile body fluids will cause the goggles to fog after condensation. Removing, wiping or replacing goggles and other equipment frequently occurs during the diagnosis and treatment process, which greatly increases the exposure and infection rate of medical staff. To make the protection “airtight”, the coating surface constructed by the team delicately balances water absorption and swelling, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, so that the droplets reaching the surface can be quickly absorbed, and then the coating can always maintain a high transparency and fog-free state. On this basis, the team further precisely adjusted the composition of the polymer chain segment and effectively solved Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST) of the material, and successfully prepared all-weather anti-fog and anti-frost surface with a wide temperature range from low temperature to high temperature.

Prof. Zhao also emphasized that this project has advanced technical design ideas, high added value of science and technology, and can be produced in batches. On the basis of the existing anti-fog technology, it will be extended to the fields of anti-fog-anti-fouling coating, anti-fog-oil adhesion control, anti-fog-sterilization coating and so on in the future, which has broad application prospects and can achieve good social and economic benefits.

Up to now, the products developed by Prof. Zhao’s team have been applied to many local designated treatment hospitals, including the First Hospital of Jilin University, the Second Hospital of Jilin University, the Third Hospital of Beijing, Lin Yi Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Shandong Province, the Fujian Provincial Hospital’s First-line Medical Aid in Hubei, West China Hospital, Huai’an First People’s Hospital, etc., with excellent feedback. Prof Zhao’s team from Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Jilin University), Ministry of Education pioneered the application of bionic science and technology to the front line of anti- pandemic work, inherited the spirit of Bethune in the new era with medical workers, composed a magnificent movement to fight against the pandemic, and opened up a good beginning for deepening the development of industry-university-research cooperation in the future.