Lately, probably almost all of us have done a coronavirus quick test and made contact with the swabs. Not always pleasant. Have you ever thought about what they are made of and how new research is improving them?

 

Reference

• Jens Köhler, Anne Thoma, Susanne Braun, Andrij Pich, Andreas Herrmann, Bedeutung von Makromolekülen im Kampf gegen das Coronavirus, Chem. Unserer Zeit 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/ciuz.202100024
• OPAN 4N6 FLOQSwabs^® www.copanusa.com/forensic-and-genetic/ (accessed July 23, 2021)
• Alec McCarthy, Lorenzo Saldana, Daniel N. Ackerman, Yajuan Su, Johnson V. John, Shixuan Chen, Shelbie Weihs, St. Patrick Reid, Joshua L. Santarpia, Mark A. Carlson, Jingwei Xie, Ultra-absorptive Nanofiber Swabs for Improved Collection and Test Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 and other Biological Specimens, Nano Lett. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c04956
• Nanofiber Swabs Could Improve Sensitivity of COVID-19 Tests, ChemistryViews.org 2021.
• Heike Beier, Corona-Teststäbchen: Enthalten sie einen krebserregenden Stoff?, Ökotest 11.05.2021. (accessed July 23, 2021)

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Also of Interest

• ChemistryViews Collection:
  SARS-CoV-2 Virus – What We Know About Vaccines and Immunity
• Video on how a Coronavirus quick test works (in German) at FazinationChemie.de of the GDCh
• Video: What Are Face Masks Made of?