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

• Published in: Engineering (Beijing, China) Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 101 - 110
• Main Authors: Hu, Shui, Tian, Hongchi, Zhang, Shijia, Wang, Dan, Gong, Guozhuo, Yue, Weihua, Liu, Keyang, Hong, Song, Wang, Rui, Yuan, Qingqing, Lu, Yonglai, Wang, Dong, Zhang, Liqun, Chen, Jianfeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2022; State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites,Beijing University of Chemical Technology,Beijing 100029,China%Dawn Polymer(Beijing)Technology Co.,Ltd.,Beijing 101599,China%Beijing Municipal Institute of Labor Protection,Beijing 100054,China%Beijing Institute of Medical Device Testing,Beijing 101111,China%School of Materials Design and Engineering,Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology,Beijing 100029,China; THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company; Elsevier
• Subjects: Disinfection; Mask; Particle filtration efficiency; Research Material Science and Engineering; Reusable; Schlieren photography; Mask; Particle filtration efficiency; Disinfection; Schlieren photography; Reusable
• ISSN: 2095-8099; 2096-0026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2021.07.022

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 concerns. 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 °C 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 photography 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.