Tiny Tech 42: Nanofiber bandages: Let’s not all stick together

Today from the world of Tiny Tech:

Skinned knees are bad enough, but why is taking a bandage off sometimes as painful as the original accident?

Well, when moms (and doctors) treat a large skin wound, they usually cover it with cotton gauze. This stops the bleeding and helps the wound to heal, but the gauze absorbs blood, and often ends up sticking to the wound as a result. When the bandage is eventually removed, this sticking can tear the wound open, causing pain and more bleeding. Not good.

Recently, scientists have investigated coating cotton gauze with tiny nanofibers made of carbon. The nanofibers, about the width of a human hair, are superhydrophobic, which means they are unusually good at repelling water, and therefore they are also unusually good at repelling blood. The scientists found that cotton gauze coated with carbon nanofibers stops bleeding and lets healing take place, but the gauze doesn’t stick to the wound.

In fact, after the wound has healed, it takes about 40 times less force to remove the bandage, compared with ordinary cotton gauze.

You have to admire the scientist’s persistence in solving this problem. Sometimes sticking to it provides a means to…well…not stick to it.

Tiny Tech is made possible by the National Science Foundation and WUFT. To learn more about Tiny Tech, go to tinytechradio.org.

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