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Nanometer-Thick Superhydrophobic Coating Renders Cloth Mask Potentially Effective against Aerosol-Driven Infections.

ABSTRACT: The advent of COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary to wear masks across populations. While the N95 mask offers great performance against airborne infections, its multilayered sealed design makes it difficult to breathe for a longer duration of use. The option of using highly breathable cloth or silk masks especially for a large populace is fraught with the danger of infection. As a normal cloth or silk mask absorbs airborne liquid, it can be a source of plausible infection. We demonstrate the chemical modification of one such mask, Eri silk, to make it hydrophobic (contact angle of water is 143.7°), which reduces the liquid absorption capacity without reducing the breathability of the mask significantly. The breathability reduces only 22% for hydrophobic Eri silk compared to the pristine Eri silk, whereas N95 shows a 59% reduction of breathability. The modified hydrophobic silk can repel the incoming aqueous liquid droplets without wetting the surface. The results indicate that a multilayered modified silk mask to make it hydrophobic can be an affordable and breathable alternative to the N95 mask.

SUBMITTER: Gogoi P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8525343 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Nanometer-Thick Superhydrophobic Coating Renders Cloth Mask Potentially Effective against Aerosol-Driven Infections.

Gogoi Prerona P Singh Sunil Kumar SK Pandey Ankur A Chattopadhyay Arun A Gooh Pattader Partho Sarathi PS

ACS applied bio materials 20211013 11

The advent of COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary to wear masks across populations. While the N95 mask offers great performance against airborne infections, its multilayered sealed design makes it difficult to breathe for a longer duration of use. The option of using highly breathable cloth or silk masks especially for a large populace is fraught with the danger of infection. As a normal cloth or silk mask absorbs airborne liquid, it can be a source of plausible infection. We demonstrate the ...[more]

PMID: 35006773

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Dataset Information

Nanometer-Thick Superhydrophobic Coating Renders Cloth Mask Potentially Effective against Aerosol-Driven Infections.

Publications

Nanometer-Thick Superhydrophobic Coating Renders Cloth Mask Potentially Effective against Aerosol-Driven Infections.

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