Like many other institutions, the Department of Chemistry in the Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN), Thiruvarur, has produced their own batch of hand sanitiser in its lab. The department has initiated the production to help at a time when there's a crisis of sanitisers in the market owing to the outbreak of COVID-19 across the world.

Dr A P Dash, the Vice-Chancellor, CUTN had directed that the staff on campus should be screened and handwash should be made available across the campus. "We have not only sent the students home but have also scanned every member of the staff force here. I was talking to Dr T Mohan Das, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Dr S Nagarajan when I asked them if we could produce sanitisers in-house and meet our own demand and they said it was quite easily possible," said the VC. So what's the recipe to make this quick this sanitiser? "Making a sanitiser in a chem lab is quite easy. You use 70 per cent Isopropanol, ethanol 10 per cent, hydrogen peroxide 1 per cent, glycerol 5 per cent and water — you have your sanitiser," explains Dr Dash who has himself had a huge contribution to biomedical sciences.

The VC appreciated the efforts of the faculty and technical staff of the department of Chemistry for producing the much-needed hand sanitiser to keeps hands virus-free. The bottles containing the sanitiser are being made available to the staff members of CUTN and will soon be distributed to the locals and shops near the campus if need be, said university sources.