Eco-friendly, coronavirus-killing masks are being developed by Kentucky researchers
A new face mask that protects the user and the environment by killing the novel coronavirus with a nontoxic tiny weapon of sorts.
Seems improbable, but a partnership between University of Kentucky and Somerset Community College professors could soon deliver 3D-printed, customizable masks that hold a re-usable, washable filter that can inactivate COVID-19.
Isabel Escobar, a UK chemical and materials engineering professor, and Eric Woolridge, a Somerset professor of additive manufacturing, are using existing research, materials, equipment and processes.
Escobar and her team create the nontoxic membrane that is chemically bound to silver nanoparticles — both of which are key to catching and inactivating the virus. Woolridge, a 3D-printing expert, and his team print the masks and the small disks that will hold the membrane.
After printing the small disks, Woolridge said he sends them to Escobar at UK where they are coated with the silver-infused membrane and are tested for their filtering abilities. The membrane-coated disks are very thin, Woolridge said, and about the diameter of a fist. The disk can be inserted in 3D-printed masks and function as the filter. Escobar said the filters are as good as and hopefully more effective than the filter in disposable N95 masks, the gold standard of protection during the COVID-19 worldwide outbreak.
The membrane inside the filter is dense enough to catch the coronavirus, Escobar said. The virus is about 120 nanometers in size, and likely would hit the membrane entrapped in saliva or mucus. For comparison, the average human hair is about 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide.
The medical-grade, silver nanoparticles in the membrane slowly kill the virus, Escobar said.
“What the silver nanoparticles do, is they will bind with that protein, they will prevent that protein from being able to attach to any structures,” Escobar said. “Without being able to attach to anything, eventually the virus dies.”
Silver has long been known to have antimicrobial properties, Escobar said.
“Silver has been used a lot in the past in wound dressings, in clothing, in surface coatings, all because of its antivirus and also antibacterial capabilities,” Escobar said. “It’s not specific for viruses. It can inactivate viruses and it can inactivate bacteria as well.”
The membranes could in theory be cleaned with water, said Escobar who is also the associate director of UK’s Center for Membrane Sciences. Her aim is a filter that is washable with water and a little mild soap.
Escobar first approached Woolridge in late May. The teams are currently testing out a variety of different designs for the filter disks, Woolridge said.
Escobar said her long-term goal is to get the masks — which would be effective against many viruses and bacteria — on the faces of first responders and eventually the general public. Since the masks are so early in development, Escobar said it’s hard to pinpoint when that’ll be and what the price of the masks might be.
“It all depends on how well things go and how fast things go and of course, as we would get closer and closer ..., we would have to look at FDA approval,” Escobar said.
Their project is funded through Kentucky’s National Science Foundation-sponsored Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
Woolridge said there are many advantages to 3D printing the masks. The masks and discs can be printed in large quantities on just a few machines. The team can print masks that are more flexible, he said, or the masks can be printed with a more hardened plastic that could be formed to someone’s face after it was dropped in hot water.
“So it’s going to be more customized to your own face, more comfortable, better for the overall environment and better at protecting you not only from COVID, but any form of microbe,” Woolridge said.
The reusable, washable masks would also be more eco-friendly, he said. That’s particularly important as disposable face masks now get discarded in landfills, bodies of water and on the sides of streets, creating an environmental waste problem and a potential biohazard.
“You consider how much raw materials and energy go into the commercialized production of these type of products in mass scale,” Woolridge said. “You know you’re looking at transportation, you’re looking at raw materials being extracted from the earth, and all of that. For every mask that you wear and then throw away, you have a negative impact on the overall environment.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 1:05 PM.