Fabrication of a High-Performance and Reusable Planar Face Mask in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

• 作者: Shui Hu Hongchi Tian Shijia Zhang Dan Wang Guozhuo Gong Weihua Yue Keyang Liu Song Hong Rui Wang Qingqing Yuan Yonglai Lu Dong Wang Liqun Zhang Jianfeng Chen
• 来源期刊: 工程（英文）
• 年，卷（期）: 2022,（2）
• 所属期刊栏目: Material Science and Engineering—Article
• 页码范围: 101-110
• 页数: 10页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic has caused a surge in demand for face masks,with the massive consumption of masks leading to an increase in resource-related and environmental con-cerns.In this work,we fabricated meltblown polypropylene(mb-PP)-based high-performance planar face masks and investigated the effects of six commonly used disinfection methods and various mask-wearing periods on the reusability of these masks.The results show that,after three cycles of treatment using hot water at 70℃for 30 min,which is one of the most scalable,user-friendly methods for viral disinfection,the particle filtration efficiency(PFE)of the mask remained almost unchanged.After mask wearing for 24 h and subsequent disinfection using the same treatment procedures,the PFE decreased to 91.3％;the average number of bacterial and fungal colonies was assessed to be 9.2 and 51.6 colony-forming units per gram(CFU·g-1),respectively;and coliform and pyogenic bacteria were not detected.Both the PFE and the microbial indicators are well above the standard for reusable masks after disinfection.Schlieren pho-tography was then used to assess the capabilities of used and disinfected masks during use;it showed that the masks exhibit a high performance in suppressing the spread of breathed air.