Jahnavi Sarma
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Written By: Jahnavi Sarma | Published : April 29, 2020 3:46 PM IST
Researchers identify the best fabrics that provide protection against COVID-19 virus.
The COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of abating. It looks like the virus will be around for a long time now. Therefore, we will need to maintain social distancing and wear masks in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, there is an acute shortage of respirators and masks in the market due to panic buying and disruption in the supply chain. Because of this, most people are now learning how to make masks at home.
Acknowledging the need of the hour, recently, the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), a Ministry of Science & Technology initiative, announced the Challenge Covid- 19 Competition (C3). One of the participants of the challenge was a 17-year-old girl, Digantika Bose, from Burdwan town in West Bengal. In just 7 days, she has designed a virus-killing mask, which can help healthcare professionals and also the general population in fighting the aggressive COVID- 19 outbreak. NIF officials say that if this 'air providing and virus destroying mask' gets approval,doctors will use it for treating COVID-19 patients.
Bose says that if a COVID-19 patient uses this mask, 'droplets exhaled will no longer contain the virus'. The Ministry of Science and Technology is all set to test the prototype of this innovative mask.
This mask will protect people from COVID-19 infection. It will also kill the virus instantly the moment it comes in contact with the mask. According to Bose, this is a two-fold mask equipped with two one-way valves and filters planted in two directions. The valves are linked to two separate chambers. When a person inhales, one of the valves will allow filtered air to enter the lungs and this kills the virus if it tries to enter along with air.
When a Covid-19 patient sneezes or coughs, the droplets containing the virus will pass through the other one-way valve linked to another chamber and get trapped and be destroyed immediately.
As mentioned before, home-made masks are the need of the hour because of the acute shortage in the market. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has also issued an advisory saying that surgical masks and N95 masks must now be reserved for healthcare professionals and frontline worker who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic. As for the general population, home-made and cloth masks are enough and it can shield them from the virus effectively.
Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago in the United States have now identified the best material that can be used for making masks. According to them, multiple layers and mixing up fabrics worked the best to filter particles. Researchers looked at many fabrics like cotton, silk, chiffon, flannel and also synthetics. They saw that a combination of fabrics work better and provide significant protection against aerosol particles.
According to them, combinations like cotton silk, cotton chiffon and cotton flannel was 80 per cent effective of for particles below 300 nanometres and 90 per cent effective for particles above 300 nanometres. For fabrics like cotton, high thread count works the best because the smaller the holes, the fewer large particles can escape. Static fabrics like polyester can also trap the aerosols inside the static environment.
